


Leo and Marisa: A Second Chance

by Snowblazehollyleafstar



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2019-05-04 19:59:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 56
Words: 24,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14600601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowblazehollyleafstar/pseuds/Snowblazehollyleafstar
Summary: At the bottom of the abyss, people are sent back to be reborn and start again. Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter are sent to the world of Harry Potter. Can they right past wrongs and choose their side?





	1. Prologue: The Bottom of the Abyss

Marisa was falling. That was nothing new about that, of course. Marisa had been falling for what felt like eternity, but as she was still alive, couldn’t have been more than a few days.  
  
Metatron had finally disintegrated into Dust a while back thanks to the golden monkey’s efforts. Now it was just Marisa and the monkey and her lover’s ghost.  
  
Falling, falling, falling.  
  
There was nothing to say: they’d said it all already. Everything had been done, it was just waiting to die and then waiting for something that would never come.  
  
“We’re doing it for Lyra,” she murmered, but Lyra seemed awfully far away and they would never see her again.  
  
And it was far too late to go back now. They had chosen this fate, they had accepted it.  
  
They just hadn’t realised quite how bad it would be.  
  
Falling, falling, falling.  
  
Because there was nothing to see around them, she peered down into the darkness, and there saw something that she could never have dreamed would exist.  
  
It wasn’t that exciting in ordinary terms – just a piece of grey flat featureless land – but it was the bottom of the bottomless abyss, and it was getting closer every second.  
  
Suddenly Marisa realised what this meant. She clutched the monkey closer, and hugged him tightly, because she knew this meant he would be gone.  
  
“Goodbye,” she whispered. There was no need to say anything else.  
  
And then they had hit the ground and Marisa was dead.  
  
It was sudden, shocking. For one brief moment it had hurt, but now all that remained was a dull ache, a longing for her dæmon.  
  
Marisa stood up and looked down at her body. Beside her, Lord Asriel was doing the same.  
  
“Well,” Marisa said, and then stopped because there was nothing more to say.  
  
They looked around, staring for something other than grey nothingness, and saw that there was indeed something: an old, old creature, older than anything Marisa had ever seen.  
  
They went up to it, for lack of anything else, and greeted it respectfully.  
  
“You have come from the abyss?” asked the creature in a gravelly, cracked voice.  
  
Marisa and Lord Asriel nodded.  
  
“It is many ages since anyone has come from there… like all who fall, you are faced with a choice. Stay here, grow old like me, have immortality but never body or dæmon – or go back, have a second chance to right what you did wrong. You will start afresh, but you can never return here.”  
  
There was almost no need to speak. “We’ll go back,” they said at the same time.  
  
“But if you go back it will be at the cost of your memories.”  
Marisa was horrified at that. Lose Lyra forever, lose everything she had ever worked towards… or stay here, in this bleak nothingness.  
  
“Very well,” she said, and so did Lord Asriel.  
  
Then they felt themselves being drawn away by some mysterious force, to some place they knew nothing of, to begin again.


	2. Diagon Alley

“I’m bored,” said Draco loudly.  
  
Leo rolled his eyes as much as he could without moving. He couldn’t move because Madam Malkin’s assistant was busy adjusting his robes.  
  
“Draco, you’re always bored!” It was true: Draco was never happy except when attention was on himself. Leo wasn’t such an attention-seeker, at least not always. He certainly didn’t dislike attention, not by any means.  
  
Draco sighed and said “I don’t see why – “  
  
“Oh, can you just shut up?”  
  
Draco did. Leo knew he didn’t take it personally – despite their regular disagreements, they were very close. In fact, to all intents and purposes, they were brothers.  
  
Leo had lived with the Malfoys for ten years, ever since his mother had been sent to Azkaban. His father, the previous Lord Asriel, had died shortly before in the service of the Dark Lord. The Malfoys and the Asriels had always been friends and fellow servants of the Dark Lord, so it was only natural that Lucius and Narcissa should take on the raising of Leo.  
  
Madam Malkin was talking to another customer, a first-year. He was small and skinny with messy black hair and green eyes. He came over and sat down on the stool next to Leo.  
  
“Hullo,” said Draco, clearly sizing him up, “Hogwarts too?”  
  
The boy replied “Yes.”  
  
Draco said in his bored, drawling voice, “My father’s next door buying my books and mother’s up the street looking at wands. Then I’m – “  
  
Leo sighed and interrupted, “Don’t you think we should actually introduce ourselves before we start revealing our entire lives? I’m Lord Asriel.”  
  
Leo preferred to be known by his title, rather than his first name.  
  
“Draco Malfoy. As I was saying, I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first years can’t have their own. I think I’ll – “  
  
“Draco! When will you learn some tact? You don’t just tell strangers all about yourselves like that! We have no idea who he is!”  
  
Draco glared at Leo and said defiantly to the other boy “I think I’ll bully Father into getting me one and I’ll smuggle it in somehow.”  
  
Leo sighed but decided it was best to concede defeat on this and let Draco make a mess of things. It really wasn’t worth the effort and he might be able to talk to the boy alone.  
  
“There you are,” said the assistant, “you’re done. If you’d like to go next…” she said, gesturing to Draco.  
  
Leo stood up and Draco took his place.  
  
“Have you got your own broom?” Draco asked.  
  
“No.”  
  
“Play Quidditch at all?”  
  
“No.”  
  
Draco clearly wasn’t pleased with the answers he was getting.  
  
“I do – Father says it’s a crime if I’m not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you’ll be in yet?”  
  
“No.”  
  
Draco paused to stealthily roll his eyes at Leo then continued, “Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but we know we’ll be in Slytherin, all our families have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?”  
  
“Mmm.”  
  
Leo was beginning to get the impression this boy didn’t know much about Hogwarts, or the wizarding world.  
  
“I say, look at that man!” said Draco, pointing outside the window to where a huge man was standing holding two ice-creams.  
  
“That’s Hagrid,” said the boy, “he works at Hogwarts.”  
  
This was surprising – he actually knew something!  
  
“Oh, I’ve heard of him. He’s a sort of servant, isn’t he?”  
  
Leo gritted his teeth to prevent himself from yelling at Draco, who was being an idiot. If he wanted to be friends with this boy, it might be best not to insult someone he’d clearly met and liked.  
  
“He’s the gamekeeper,” said the boy, looking as if he wanted to leave quickly.  
  
“Yes, exactly. I’ve heard he’s a sort of savage – lives in a hut in the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic and ends up setting fire to his bed.”  
  
Leo shot Draco a very hard glare.  
  
“I think he’s brilliant,” said the boy coldly.  
  
Instead of backing down and apologising, Draco said, “Do you? Why is he with you? Where are your parents?”  
  
“They’re dead.”  
  
Draco said, not sounding at all sorry, “Oh, sorry. But they were our kind, weren’t they?”  
  
Typical Draco. Now he was going to start on one of his pure-blood rants.  
  
“They were a witch and wizard, if that’s what you mean.”  
  
“I really don’t think they should let the other kind in, do you?” At this Leo tuned out. Personally, he thought the whole pure-blood thing was a load of nonsense, but unlike Draco he had some tact and didn’t want to displease his adopted parents.  
  
Madam Malkin said that the other boy was done and he left very quickly.  
  
“Draco, you complete and utter idiot!”


	3. Lord Leo

Marisa dragged her trunk over to the nearest compartment and heaved it in before sitting down. There were other people in the compartment, but that didn’t bother her too much.  
  
“Yes, you can sit here,” said one of the others sarcastically. She glanced round to look at him. He was a tall boy with dark hair. One of the others had long blond hair and the other two looked big and strong.  
  
“Actually,” said the blond-haired boy, “not necessarily.”  
  
Marisa realised that this wasn’t her primary school and she would need to work on rebuilding the reputation she’d had there.  
  
“And who gave you the right to decide where I should or should not sit?” she asked icily.  
  
“I – I – “ Marisa smiled. Clearly, this boy wasn’t used to anyone talking to him like that. He’d always had things his own way. Well, so had she, ever since she was seven, and she wasn’t going to let that change now.  
  
“Look, are you pure-blood or not?”  
  
So there was some standard by which she was being measured, and she had no idea what that was, if only because she hadn’t read through all her large pile of books yet. Of course, she wasn’t going to let that bother her.  
  
“That is none of your business. Unless there is any actual reason why I shouldn’t sit here, I will.”  
  
The boy frowned for a moment, then said, “Vincent, Gregory, could you teach this girl a lesson.”  
  
The two strong boys stood up and walked over to her. Marisa didn’t flinch except to reach for her wand. She gripped it tightly and remembered the basic jinx she had been learning during the summer, along with many other spells. She’d double-checked the rules, and there was technically nothing to stop her from practising underage magic before starting Hogwarts.  
  
The two boys moved closer, and pointing her wand at one of them, she whispered, “Flipendo!”  
  
The boy fell back and the other looked rather nervously around before sitting back down.  
  
“Very impressive,” said the blond boy sarcastically. Marisa smiled sweetly back at him. He left her alone after that, although Marisa couldn’t help noticing that when the food trolley came around and the boy bought sweets to share, she was left out.  
  
Well, it was clear who the first victim of her campaign to re-establish her reputation would be.  
  
Just after the others had finished their sweets, a skinny boy came in.  
  
“Hi, Theo,” said the blond boy, to which he responded, “Hello, Draco. Have you heard Harry Potter’s only a few carriages down?”  
  
Draco raised his eyebrows; clearly he had not. “Really? I think I might go and introduce myself. Coming, Leo?”  
  
The tall boy shook his head and Draco, Vincent and Gregory left. Theo went back to his own compartment, leaving Marisa and Leo alone.  
  
“Sorry about Draco,” said Leo. “He’s really awful sometimes.”  
  
“I can tell. I’ll start plotting my revenge soon.”  
  
Leo smiled. “Good on you. I’d do it myself except as I live with his parents I’d probably get into awful trouble. I don’t mind helping you, though.”  
  
“You live with his parents?” Marisa asked curiously. “Are you brothers?”  
  
“In a manner of speaking. I’m adopted.”  
  
“Who are your real parents?”  
  
“My father is dead, and my mother’s… in prison.”  
  
“Really? What did she do?”  
  
“Long story,” responded Leo airily. “Anyway, I didn’t catch your name?”  
  
That was a ridiculously obvious way to change the subject, but Marisa didn’t care.  
  
“Marisa,” she said, “Marisa King. And you?”  
  
“Lord… Leo.”  
  
Marisa laughed out loud. “Lord Leo! Seriously?” Once she could speak again without being breathless from laughter, she said, “So… can you help me plot my revenge on Draco, then?”  
  
Leo nodded and Marisa smiled triumphantly as the two leant closer together to begin plotting.


	4. The Sorting, Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for not updating - I didn't realise anyone was actually interested in this. Edits to the earlier chapters were just adding more space between paragraphs, so you don't need to go back and read them again (unless it's been too long and you want to refresh your memory). Reviews appreciated and will be returned!

Five minutes later, Draco, Vincent and Gregory stormed back in. Leo moved away from Marisa hastily.

“That idiotic boy doesn’t know what’s good for him!” Draco said loudly. Gregory, Leo noticed, seemed to have a bleeding finger.

“Who?” Leo asked. “Harry Potter?”

“Yes, it was that boy from Madam Malkin’s, he went and tried to fight us and he’s friends with a Weasley and the rat bit Gregory!”

Leo rolled his eyes. “I told you so. You’re a bit of a hypocrite to act like that and call him idiotic.”

“It’s about time we got changed,” said Draco, quickly changing the subject. “You are definitely leaving now, Miss Mudblood.”

Marisa didn’t react to the insult: either she didn’t understand what it meant or she was pretending not to care. Instead she got to her feet and left, very slowly, seeming not to care at all. 

As soon as she was out, the boys began stripping off and changing into their robes.

When they’d finished, they heard a voice echoing through the corridors: “We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes’ time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.”

The four boys stepped out into the corridor, all at least a little nervous but none of them showing it. They pushed and shoved their way out onto the platform, where they saw the man who had been with Harry Potter waving a lantern and calling “Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here!”

The group of about forty or fifty followed Hagrid down a slippery slope. There was a loud “Ooh!” as Hogwarts came into sight, but neither Leo nor Draco made a sound.

Soon they reached a small fleet of boats bobbing in the lake, and were told “No more’n four to a boat!” 

Draco climbed into an empty one. Vincent and Gregory followed, rocking the boat heavily, but Leo hesitated a little.

“Coming, Leo?” Draco asked, but it was too late: Pansy Parkinson was already climbing in. 

Leo turned away to find another boat, and saw one containing Theo and Marisa. He climbed quickly in. 

Marisa smiled a little at the sight of her ally, and the boats moved forwards. No-one spoke until they reached the front door and Hagrid knocked loudly.

The door was immediately opened by a stern-looking woman who was addressed by Hagrid as Professor McGonagall. She escorted them into a small empty chamber, and gave them a speech on the Sorting, Houses, House Cup, et cetera. 

Leo didn’t really listen that attentively. He knew it all already. As Professor McGonagall left, he began listening in on others’ conversations, until he heard a few gasps and saw a few ghosts had just walked through the wall.

Leo didn’t listen to the ghosts, either. He dimly heard something about Peeves, whoever he was.

Professor McGonagall returned and led them into the Great Hall, telling them to form a line. Leo was between Draco and Marisa.

The Sorting Hat was brought out and sang its song (rather boring, Leo noted) and then Professor McGonagall began calling out the names.

“Abbot, Hannah!”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

“Asriel, Leonard!”

Leo had momentarily forgotten that he would be called so soon. He walked forward, ignoring the curious looks – next to the Lestranges, the Asriels had been the Dark Lord’s most infamous servants – and put the hat on. 

It only took ten seconds before it shouted “SLYTHERIN!”


	5. The Sorting, Part Two

As soon as Marisa heard Leo being Sorted into Slytherin, she knew where she wanted to go. But she still had a long time to wait. 

The next new Slytherin was Millicent Bulstrode, closely followed by Vincent Crabbe, one of Draco’s minions. 

Marisa didn’t really care about any of the others, so she spent her time trying to guess which boy was Harry Potter. 

As a Muggle-born, she didn’t know that much about Harry Potter, but according to her History of Magic textbook he was famous because he’d defeated someone so scary that no-one wanted to name him, when he was only one year old.

That, to Marisa, seemed absolutely crazy. How on earth could a one-year-old do something like that? Therefore, Marisa was very intrigued by Harry Potter, and thought he would be a useful ally. She hoped he’d be in Slytherin: herself, Harry Potter and Leo would be an invincible team.

Daphne Greengrass and Draco’s other minion soon joined the Slytherin table, and the line was beginning to shrink noticeably. 

It wasn’t long until it would be Marisa’s turn, and she began to feel a little nervous. Not, of course, that she let anyone see that.

“King, Marisa!”

Marisa stepped forward calmly. Almost before she’d managed to put the Hat on, it yelled “SLYTHERIN!”

She pulled off the Hat and set it down on the stool. That was when she noticed no-one was clapping; instead, all of the Slytherins were staring at her curiously. 

Leo began to applaud loudly, and then everyone turned to stare at him, instead. 

Marisa thought she understood why people were acting strangely: because she was a “Mudblood”. She walked over to the Slytherin table and found an empty seat between Leo and Daphne Greengrass.

The ceremony continued. Next was a boy who managed to walk off wearing the Hat (Gryffindor) followed by “MacDougal, Morag” (Ravenclaw) and then Draco Malfoy. To no-one’s surprise, he was sorted into Slytherin.

He walked over to the table and sat down on Leo’s other side, ignoring Marisa.

Soon after that, the name that everyone had been waiting for was called: “Potter, Harry!”

Marisa stared curiously at him. He was small and skinny, with messy dark hair and glasses, but she couldn’t see any more than that before his head vanished under the Hat. 

As everyone waited, all hoping he would be put into their House, the Hat paused for a minute and then yelled “GRYFFINDOR!”

Marisa sighed softly, disappointed. Why couldn’t he have been in Slytherin?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone for reading! Marisa doesn't love Harry, even if it seems that way. She just thinks he'd be a useful ally.


	6. Exploding Snap, Arguments and Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not really sure where this is going next. But I'm pretty sure that there will be time skips. A lot of them. And sorry for the shorter chapter than normal.
> 
> Please review!

In the Slytherin common room, the first-years settled down. None of them wanted to go to bed yet. Theo started a round of Exploding Snap with Daphne Greengrass, and Leo decided to join in.

As Daphne dealt out the cards, he heard Draco’s loud voice ringing out across the room.

“How come you’re in Slytherin if you’re a Mudblood?”

Leo winced a little, and glanced at Marisa, who was sitting alone in a corner. He almost got up to defend her, but then he remembered: you live with Draco’s parents, you have to go along with all this nonsense.

Marisa, anyway, didn’t exactly look as if she needed someone to defend her. She stood up, eyes blazing with rage, and walked directly over to Draco.

“I am in Slytherin,” she said icily, “because I am worthy of it. I might not be pure-blood, but I am cunning, as the Sorting Hat said that Slytherins are. Is there anyone who believes that I am not worthy? I’ll take on any one of you.”

Leo was impressed. He decided that he liked this girl. Also, there was something… familiar about her. He couldn’t quite put it into words.

Draco said, “Um… err…”, clearly surprised.

“Every rule has an exception, Draco,” Marisa said. “And I am the exception to this rule.”

Leo stared at her in admiration, and was promptly brought back to Earth when the pack of cards exploded in his face.

That night, Leo dreamt that he was standing at the edge of a bridge, and the bridge led to another world. There was a snow leopard at his side, but the snow leopard… was him? He didn’t understand. 

Nor did he understand why he was so much older than eleven years old. Or why there was a woman in his arms, or why she looked so like Marisa. 

But what he did understand was that he loved this woman, whoever she was.


	7. Revenge in Potions

It was that Friday, in Potions, that Marisa got a chance to exact revenge on Draco. The Potions professor, Severus Snape, who was also the Head of Slytherin, was rather mean to Harry Potter and took a point from Gryffindor. If Marisa hadn’t wanted Slytherin to win the House Cup she might have complained.

They were told to get into pairs to brew a simple potion to cure boils. Marisa had wanted to go with Leo, but he ended up with the other Slytherin boy – wasn’t his name Theo? Instead, she was paired with Daphne Greengrass, who didn’t utter any objection to working with a Muggle-born.

Once the potions had reached a reasonable stage, Marisa reached into her pocket and pulled out a Dr. Filibuster’s Wet-Start, No-Heat Firework, kindly donated by Leo, while Daphne was stewing horned slugs.

As Snape was telling everyone to look at how well Draco had done the same, Marisa threw the firework. It landed in Draco’s cauldron and there were two loud explosions.

“Potter!” called Snape immediately. “Thought you could use the explosion to prank Draco, did you? Well, you thought wrong. Fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention for you.”

“But Professor – “ stammered Harry Potter, “I didn’t – “

“And a further five for lying. Another word, and I’ll make it a hundred.”

Marisa glanced around to see the effect of the explosions. Many people were covered in boils, but the worst affected was Draco, whose entire face was covered in boils. Along with many others, he walked up to the desk to receive an antidote from Snape. 

Marisa felt rather uncomfortable. It was one thing to take revenge, and very satisfying too, but she didn’t like an innocent person being blamed for it. Plus, the whole point of her plan was that Draco knew it was her fault.

She raised her hand.

“Yes, Miss… err…”

“Marisa King, Professor,” she said in a rush, worried that if she stopped she wouldn’t be able to start again. “It wasn’t Harry Potter who threw that firework. It was me.”

“I see,” said Snape icily. “Detention. And stay behind after class, I’d like to have a word with you.”

Marisa nodded and began to focus utterly on her potion. A lot of the Slytherins were glaring at her, but she seemed to have made friends of the Gryffindors. She also noticed that Potter’s detention and house points had not been revoked. 

When the bell rang, everyone else filed out, leaving only Marisa and Snape in the room.

“It was not very wise of you to provoke Draco Malfoy. His family is extremely influential.”

“It was not very wise of Draco Malfoy to provoke me.”

“What did he do?”

“He called me a Mudblood.”

For a moment, Marisa could have sworn Snape flinched. It was very odd.

“Very well. But it must not happen again. You may go.”

Marisa left, very relieved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason Snape flinched is of course because of Lily. I think this may end up changing the result of the House Cup - I need to decide what to do about that. Please review!


	8. Flying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a day late. Not bad. Enjoy the new chapter and please review!

Shortly before Halloween, the Flying lessons began for first-years, and Gryffindors would be learning with Slytherins.

Leo regarded the sign on the Slytherin notice board with some trepidation. He’d been on a broom enough times to know that he never wanted to go near one if he could help it. Sadly, he didn’t have a choice.

The lesson began at three-thirty. It was taught by Madame Hooch, a witch who looked a little like a hawk and who snapped at them to stand by a broomstick.

Leo, who had been moving very slowly, found himself left with the worst and most clunky broom of the lot. He sighed.

The first instruction was to put your hand above your broomstick and say “Up!”

There was a chorus of “Up!” from everyone, but only two brooms flew up into their holders’ hands the first time. One was Marisa’s. The other, Leo was unsurprised to see, was Harry Potter’s.

Leo’s stayed firmly on the ground, and didn’t move at all. Everyone else got more attempts. Draco got it on his second try and so did two boys and a girl On the third try even Crabbe and Goyle got it.

By the fifth there were only three people left: himself and two Gryffindors, one boy and one girl. On the sixth the girl, who he remembered as being the know-it-all from Potions, got it too.

Leo tried not to seem too embarrassed as Madame Hooch began showing everyone else how to grip the broom properly, and said “Up!” He was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually came up to his hand. At last.

The next instruction they received was to push off from the ground on the count of three.

Leo reluctantly lifted one leg over his broom.

“On my whistle,” said Madame Hooch, “three – two – “

That was when someone’s broom went up anyway: the only boy who had hadn’t been able to get his broomstick to come to his hand. Leo saw his terrified face and then the boy leaned perilously far over and fell twenty feet to the ground.

Madame Hooch announced that the boy had a broken wrist and set off to take him to the hospital wing, telling the others sternly that if they touched the brooms they would be expelled.

Draco burst out laughing the moment Madame Hooch and the boy were out of sight. “Did you see his face, the great lump?”

The other Slytherins joined in, Leo’s laugh slightly faked. Marisa didn’t laugh at all but stared seriously straight ahead.

One of the Gryffindors told Draco to shut up (Leo silently cheered) and Pansy Parkinson accused her of fancying a fat little cry-baby.

At that moment Draco picked something up from the grass: the Remembrall Leo remembered seeing the boy with that morning.

Harry Potter said quietly “Give that here, Malfoy,” but it was too late: Draco had taken off and was hovering level with an oak tree.

The know-it-all shouted “No!” but Harry grabbed his broom and took off. “Give it here,” he said, “or I’ll knock you off that broom.”

“Come down, Draco,” Leo advised quietly.

Harry thrust his broom at Draco, who just about managed to dodge and then threw the ball to the ground and carefully descended.

Leo was impressed to see Harry diving after the ball and catching it before it hit the ground.

“HARRY POTTER!” The Deputy Headmistress was running towards them, yelling “never – in all my time at Hogwarts – “

Some of the Gryffindors protested, but Professor McGonagall silenced them and told Harry Potter to come with her.

In the shocked silence that followed, Leo was the only one who noticed that Marisa had picked up the Remembrall from where Potter had dropped it and slipped it into her pocket.


	9. More Flying

The gossip was all over the school next day: Harry Potter had not been expelled, but instead made the youngest Seeker in centuries and given a top-of-the-range racing broom.

Marisa was, to say the least, not happy. She was currently ranting to Leo under her breath during lunch. He probably wasn’t listening, but she kept going anyway. 

“I can fly just as well as he can, the only reason I didn’t do that was that I’m not a complete and utter idiot, I bet if he wasn’t the Boy Who Lived he would have been expelled for that, it’s just blatant favouritism…”

“Marisa,” said Leo, “if you don’t shut up I’ll tell someone about that Remembrall.”

She stopped, took a deep breath, and then said calmly, “You noticed? I thought everyone would be too distracted to see.”

“Exactly. I have enough sense to know that when everyone else is distracted is when someone who’s actually competent will do something secret, so I don’t let myself be distracted.”

Marisa nodded. “Is that a serious blackmail attempt, or are you just joking?”

“Semi-serious. If I really wanted to blackmail you I’d find something more important.”

Marisa laughed. “I’ll make sure not to give away any secrets of mine. Anyway, I thought we were allies.”

“We are,” Leo replied, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t blackmail each other.”

Marisa nodded. “Too true. Now, I was wondering, could you help me with something…?”

Approximately fifteen minutes later, Marisa was perched on a rickety broom thirty feet in the air, trying not to look down as she executed a series of twists and turns.

Leo, meanwhile, was staying firmly on the ground and watching. He glanced around regularly to check that nobody was watching.

Marisa had consulted the school rules and seen that there was a ban on first-years using brooms without supervision. 

What the rules didn’t specifically mention was who exactly was qualified to supervise. Technically Marisa hadn’t broken the rules, but she doubted any teachers would actually let her off on that count. Except, possibly, Professor Snape. Leo might have some degree of influence with him.

As she angled her broom for a steep dive, Leo glanced at his watch. “We only have five minutes before we’ll be missed. We should go.”

Marisa nodded reluctantly and brought her broom to the ground. “Same time tomorrow?” she asked.

“No, I don’t think we should do this every day. Next week. I’d better go.” And with that, Leo hurried off.


	10. Too Many Coincidences?

Leo was wedged into a little corner in the Slytherin common room, between Marisa and Theo. They were all holding plates of party food, and chattering nervously amongst themselves.

“A troll?” asked Theo, worried. “That could kill someone.”

Marisa smiled coldly. “Bet you a million po – Galleons Potter stops it.”

Leo shrugged.

“I could probably take on a troll,” said Theo. “I’m one of the oldest in my year, I turned twelve last month. When was your birthday again, Leo? I forgot.”

“First of December,” said Leo. “The beginning of winter.”

“I thought that was the twenty-first,” said Theo at the same time as Marisa gasped.

“What?” asked Leo, slightly confused.

“That’s the same as mine!”

“What a coincidence!” said Theo, but Leo was beginning to have his doubts. There had been a lot of coincidences involving himself and Marisa in the last few months: the way she’d seemed so familiar, the dream he’d had, and now their shared birthdays.

There had to be some sort of connection between them – but what?

 

Later that evening, he wrote to the Malfoys, using the eagle owl he shared with Draco.

_Lucius, Narcissa,_

_Did you ever have any contact with a Muggle family called King? There is a rather familiar-seeming Mudblood in Slytherin._

_Your loving son,_

_Leo._

He tied it to the owl’s leg and watched as it flew away into the distance. Soon, perhaps, he would find out the truth.


	11. The First Four Months

Leo and Marisa had finally begun to settle into Hogwarts. They were enjoying their classes, particularly Potions. They were both near the top of the class in that and rivalled each other intensely. 

Marisa’s favourite subject, however, was by a long margin Flying. She loved the sense of power and control it gave her, and the sheer exhilaration of the wind in her hair. 

Leo preferred Transfiguration, which he was fairly good at. He felt that magic was the most important thing to learn.

Leo received an owl from Lucius, but it was not what he had hoped. No, it said in as many words. We did not.

They continued with the secret flying. Leo read books while he watched Marisa soar through the air. 

Marisa’s campaign to re-establish her reputation also continued. She never openly confessed after the Potions incident, but Slytherins weren’t stupid. They worked out soon enough that when Pansy Parkinson lost her wand for a few days, when Crabbe grew absurdly long toenails, the common factor was that they had insulted Marisa a few days before.

People left her alone after that. She was no longer openly called “Mudblood” and she made a friend in Daphne Greengrass, who could see Marisa’s power and decided to work with her instead of against her.

Leo found making friends a lot easier, but he had to avoid spending too much time with Marisa. In the library he spoke to Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw, and got to know him well. He began to develop two circles of friends: Slytherin blood-purists and intelligent Ravenclaws of all blood statuses.

Marisa sort of fell into a category of her own. He spent as much time with her as he could without making his fellow Slytherins suspicious. They plotted together and talked about everything they could think of. They exchanged knowledge: Leo telling Marisa about the Wizarding War and Marisa telling Leo about the wonders of Muggle technology.

Together they charted the passageways of Hogwarts, making careful notes in case they ever needed to escape through the halls.

And it was on one of those explorations that they made the most exciting discovery of all.


	12. The Room of Requirement

They were up on the seventh floor, and Leo was scrutinising a portrait in excruciating detail. Marisa was not so interested. It was getting close to curfew and they had already been out exploring for three hours.

“Leo,” she said in her most plaintive voice, “my legs ache. Is that portrait of… dancing trolls? …really that interesting?”

“Yes,” said Leo, not looking up. “I’m trying to focus here.”

Marisa rolled her eyes and began to pace back and forth. _I need to rest…_ she thought. As she passed the blank stretch of wall opposite, a plain door handle suddenly appeared.

“Leo,” said Marisa, now quite excited, “look at this!”

Leo turned around. “How did that happen? What did you do?”

Marisa shrugged. “I walked back and forth…”

She put her hand on the handle and glanced at Leo, who nodded. Marisa turned the handle and opened the door. 

Inside was a massive bed, with pillows all fluffed up and a lovely warm white duvet. And the music playing… 

“Aladdin?” asked Marisa, a massive smile spreading over her face. “How on earth did they guess?”

Leo looked somewhat nauseated: clearly “A Whole New World” wasn’t his idea of musical bliss. 

Marisa saw a roaring, crackling fire making the room beautifully warm, and a pair of silky grey pyjamas neatly folded on the bed. She picked them up and was unsurprised to find that they were exactly her size.

“How did you make this happen?” asked Leo, his eyes lit up with urgency. “If we can master this room, we could do anything!”

“Thanks,” said Marisa, “but world domination can wait. I need to relax.” And with that, she flopped down onto the bed. 

“Marisa, I’m serious!”

“Okay. I thought that I needed to rest. Now can you let me rest?”

“Fine,” said Leo, “Just… bear in mind you might end up disappearing.”

Marisa glared at him, unsure if he was serious or not, until he went out and shut the door.

Then she rolled around until she was in a perfectly comfortable position and began singing lazily along. Bliss.


	13. World Domination? Or just Improvement?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a roll with this, so I'm going to be updating almost every day for a while now. (Well, maybe. It's not a promise.) Hope you enjoy!

Leo closed the door of the room where Marisa was relaxing and then counted to ten in his head. He felt slightly thirsty, so he thought, _I need a drink._ The door handle was no longer there.

He tried pacing up and down, as Marisa had earlier. Still nothing. Then he thought _I need the room where Marisa is_ , and the handle immediately appeared.

So that meant the room wouldn’t work if there was someone in it… or did it only do certain things. There was one way to find out, but Marisa wasn’t going to like it. He opened the door.

There was exactly the same room, Marisa still sprawled on the bed. 

“You need to get out,” said Leo.

“Look, I told you, I am resting. Leave me in peace.”

Leo suddenly had a thought. He wasn’t sure if it was right, but it might convince Marisa to leave the room. “I knew there had to be a catch somewhere!” he said triumphantly.

“What – what do you mean? What… catch?” Marisa appeared genuinely confused. 

Leo smiled. “The room is a trap. It makes you stay here by fulfilling your dreams, but it keeps you here. You can’t leave.”

“You’re making it up. Of course I can leave.”

“Prove it.”

“You just want me out of here so you can… whatever it is you want to do…”

Leo wasn’t used to dealing with people who actually had enough of a brain to see through his tricks. He sighed. “Maybe…”

Marisa laughed a little. “So you admit it?”

“Well…” he said slowly, “I wasn’t completely making it up… it’s still possible…”

“Anyway, I’m not the one who’s obsessed with this room. Who’s the one who’s trying to – “

Leo interrupted hastily. “To use its powers to…um…”

“Take over the world?”

“No, I don’t want to take over the world, I want to improve it…”

“And your definition of an improved world is one you’re in charge of?”

“Shut up.”

“Only if you let me enjoy my room!”

Leo paused, considering. “All right, just until tonight. But I’m not the one responsible for you being out past curfew, and I’m leaving you. And tomorrow we are coming straight back here to investigate further.”

Marisa nodded.

“Bye,” said Leo, and walked out of the door.


	14. Scientific Investigation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and I failed to update every day straight away. I have a cold. That's my excuse.
> 
> Please review!

It was half past seven and Marisa was fast asleep. She hadn’t left the room until ten o’clock and then she’d remembered a Transfiguration assignment due tomorrow. That had taken two hours, so it had been almost one in the morning by the time she’d got to sleep.

“Wake up!” said the voice of Daphne Greengrass.

“What…” muttered Marisa and sat up slowly. She was usually an early bird, but took forever to wake up properly.

“Lord Asriel says you need to be downstairs and ready to go in five minutes for a scientific investigation.”

“Oh. That. Tell him I’ve only just woken up. I’ll be down in… ten or fifteen.”

Daphne nodded and walked downstairs. Marisa rolled out of bed and clambered to her feet. 

Precisely six minutes later she was downstairs and only a third asleep.

“You’re late.” Leo said.

“I didn’t get to sleep until one!”

“And that is your own fault. Let’s go.”

Without further ado, Leo marched off towards the seventh floor. Marisa sighed and followed him up. 

Seven floors later, they were there.

“I’m hungry,” said Marisa.

“Why don’t you test out the room by asking for a meal?” suggested Leo.

As much as Marisa hated to admit it, that was a very sensible idea. She tossed her head (not styled in its usual ponytail – no time) from side to side and then began pacing back and forth, thinking _I need some food…_

Nothing happened. The door handle didn’t appear.

“Interesting…” Leo muttered. “Let me try.” He paced back and forth in the same way, but nothing happened.

“Try asking for a drink,” he said. “That’s what I did last night.”

Marisa did. This time the handle appeared. Inside was a room full of cups and goblets and mugs, all filled to the brim with every liquid imaginable.

She picked up a goblet full of pumpkin juice. “Thirsty?” she asked, offering it to Leo. He shook his head, so she took a small gulp.

“Does it taste normal?” asked Leo.

“Oh,” said Marisa, “I get it. You were worried it might be poisoned or drugged or something so you got me to do it because you’d rather risk my life than your own?”

“Got it in one,” said Leo.

Marisa glared at him. “Yes, it does taste normal.”

“Good,” said Leo. “Now let’s go. Bring the goblet with you.”

She shrugged, but obeyed. Once they’d closed the door behind them, Leo told Marisa to take another sip of pumpkin juice.

“No,” she replied, “not again. It’s your turn. Otherwise I’ll jinx you. And we already know it’s not poisoned.”

“Fine,” said Leo, taking the goblet from her and cautiously sipping it. “Normal. Just like I thought. Put this out of the way.”

Marisa nodded and put it down on the opposite side of the corridor.

“What now?” she asked. “Can we go and get breakfast?”

“I… think so,” said Leo. “I can’t think of anything else to investigate. You go if you like, I’ll just make sure I don’t think of anything else.”

Marisa went.


	15. The First Quidditch Match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait - I will now (try to) be updating every Wednesday and Sunday. Enjoy the new chapter!

The first Quidditch match of the season, between Gryffindor and Slytherin, took place in November. Leo and Marisa sat with the other Slytherins, Draco and Marisa studiously ignoring each other.

When the match began, Potter immediately flew up high. He soon dived (Draco said that Harry had spotted some money on the ground; Leo and Marisa both ignored him) towards what Leo thought was the Snitch.

Just as he was about to catch it, Marcus Flint, the Slytherin captain, flew directly in front of him. The Gryffindors began protesting loudly and Madam Hooch called for a penalty.

“This sort of thing gives Slytherin a bad name,” said Leo. “You at least shouldn’t be seen to break the rules so blatantly.”

Marisa nodded.

As the match continued, Potter’s broom suddenly began to jerk around uncontrollably. Marisa raised her eyebrows.

“Why is this happening?”

“I think it’s jinxed,” said Leo.

Marisa couldn’t help feeling a reluctant admiration for Potter’s flying skills, even though she was sure she could have done just as well herself.

The Weasley twins flew over to Potter to try and help him onto a better broom, which did no good at all. Marcus Flint scored five times without anyone noticing.

“Who would have jinxed that broom?”

“Potter must have enemies. Servants of the – You-Know-Who.”

“Or their children, out to avenge their parents.” Marisa added.

Leo paused. “Like – you know – me?”

“Your parents were supporters of You-Know-Who?”

Leo nodded reluctantly. “Yeah. I thought you’d have found out by now.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” spat Marisa, getting to her feet. “Some friend you are!”

“I don’t like to talk about it,” said Leo, “I – I thought – “

Marisa rolled her eyes. “Goodbye, Lord Asriel,” she said, icy emphasis on his title. “I won’t be seeing you.”

She stalked out. As she did so she heard a yell in Potter’s voice: “I’ve got it! I’ve got the Snitch!” Gritting her teeth and thinking that she could have got to the Snitch first, she walked on.


	16. A Spectacular Birthday Present

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated on time! *gasp*! Sorry for the very short chapter. Please review.

It was the fifteenth of November: just over two weeks before Leo and Marisa’s shared birthdays. Marisa still wasn’t speaking to Leo, and he was missing his closest friend.

He needed to do something to make her forgive him. If he could find a truly spectacular birthday present…

Then he had a brilliant idea. It was, of course, against the rules, but rules didn’t bother Leo that much. He just needed a plan…

“Draco,” he said, “can I borrow your copy of Which Broomstick?” 

Draco glanced up from his Potions assignment. “What? Err – yeah, sure. It’s in my trunk.”

Leo smiled. His assumption that Draco wouldn’t ask any awkward questions like “Why on earth would you want to do that when you hate flying?” had been correct.

He hurried upstairs to the boys’ dormitory and began fishing around in Draco’s trunk until he found the magazine. He jotted down a number on a piece of parchment and then put Draco’s things neatly back in.

Leo stood up and headed to the seventh floor. He had an owl to send.


	17. Early-Morning Presents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For once I'm actually nice to my characters! And I updated on time!
> 
> The closeness to IRL dates is purely coincidental.

On the morning of the first of December, Marisa was up at half past six. She knew it was ridiculously early, but she had a feeling a certain someone would be waiting for her.

Once she was dressed, she grabbed the bag of Zonko’s tricks she’d bribed a third-year to get and walked downstairs into the common room. 

As she had expected, Leo was sitting in the cosiest armchair, with a long thin parcel on his lap.

“Is that a broomstick?” Marisa asked, trying to control the massive grin spreading across her face. 

Leo nodded.

“But it’s against the – oh!” she said suddenly, remembering the day at breakfast when a broomstick had arrived for Leo, “an administrative error, indeed! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before!”

She reached out her hand to take it, but Leo shook his head.

“You can only have it if you forgive me.”

“That’s blackmail!” said Marisa, no longer trying to stop grinning. “As a matter of fact, I was going to forgive you anyway. I got this for you as an apology.” She handed him the joke bag and then reached out for the broom.

“How did you get this?” asked Leo. “I thought first-years couldn’t go to Hogsmeade.”

“They can’t,” said Marisa, “I bribed a third-year.” She began pulling the paper off the broom as Leo started to inspect the tricks. 

Once the paper was off, Marisa gasped. “A Nimbus 2000? How – “

“Much did it cost? Quite a lot, but it’s a small price to pay for getting my ally back.”

“And of course, next time you need a favour, I’ll feel guilty about the broom so I’ll have to do it.”

“Got it in one.”

“You do realise the flaw in your plan… I don’t have a moral code, so I won’t feel guilty!”

Leo glared at her.

“Anyway, I’d better go and hide this before anyone else spots it.” Marisa picked up the broom and went back upstairs.


	18. The Perfect Birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *gasps* How am I still updating on time? Please read and review!

As Leo lay on his bed at midnight, staring up at the green curtains, he reflected that this had been one of his best birthdays yet. In addition to the Zonko’s bag, he had received a packet of Self-Shuffling cards from Draco, a large bag of sweets from Theo and an old but interesting-looking book on the history of the Dark Arts from his parents.

Marisa hadn’t got quite so good a haul, but she had been sent a Muggle music player from her parents (“Those things don’t work in Hogwarts!” she said slightly grumpily) and Daphne had bought her some Chocolate Frogs.

They’d still had classes, of course: Potions, Herbology and Transfiguration. They had exchanged Transfigured teapots at the end of class although neither drank much tea. 

During lunch break they’d slipped out to the Quidditch pitch so Marisa could try out her new broom, which she’d said was absolutely fabulous. 

They’d spent the evening in the Room of Requirement having an impromptu party. Marisa had attempted to educate Leo in the world of Muggle music (the Room had played party songs for some bizarre reason) but he’d been unimpressed.

They’d exchanged Chocolate Frog cards and played a complicated game of their own invention involving Self-Shuffling cards, Exploding Snap cards and Every-Flavour Beans at which Leo had been resoundingly thrashed.

Then once that was done, they’d attempted to prank each other using some of the Zonko’s tricks but hadn’t been able to catch each other unawares.

Eventually, exhausted, they’d crawled back to the common room to go to bed, tired but unbelievably happy.


	19. Time to go home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I might have been abducted by aliens - I'm updating on time! Please review!

It was the day before students went home for the Christmas holidays. Marisa had signed up to leave almost immediately, looking forward to seeing her mother again, but Leo had hesitated. He was reluctant to leave the castle and waste time when he could be uncovering its many secrets.

Eventually, however, he had decided that family loyalty should be more important, even though he didn’t care about that very much.

Marisa had sneaked up to the boys’ dormitory, where Leo was packing his things. Draco, Vincent and Gregory were all still down in the common room, but Theo was also in the dorm.

“You’re sitting on my robes,” said Leo.

Marisa shuffled along a bit.

“Will you write to me?” she asked. “I’m pretty sure my mum will be able to cope with owls flying down the chimneys or whatever.”

“I’d like to…” said Leo slowly, “but I’m pretty sure I’ll be in trouble with the Malfoys if I do. They won’t like it if they know that their adopted son’s in communication with a Mudblood. So I’ll try and write, but it’s not a promise.”

“Sure,” said Marisa. “Thanks. By the way…” she said, somewhat awkwardly, “I got you an early Christmas present.”

She pulled a plastic sachet out of her pocket and handed it to Leo. It contained three Chocolate Frogs and a packet of Every-Flavour Beans.

Leo took it with a smile. “Thanks!” he said. “I didn’t think to get you an early present, but you can have a late one after Christmas.”

“That’s okay,” said Marisa, concealing her disappointment: she knew it was ungrateful to expect a Christmas present after the Nimbus.

Leo tore open the sachet and opened the packet of Every-Flavour Beans.

“Want one?” he asked, offering it to Marisa. 

She nodded and grabbed a purple bean. “What do you think?” she asked. “Blackcurrant?”

“I don’t know,” said Leo.

Marisa took a cautious bite, then spat it out again. “Paint!” she said through gritted teeth. “Your turn.”

Leo selected a bright red bean. 

“Probably blood or something,” said Marisa.

Leo shook his head. “I’m not sure,” he said, putting it into his mouth. “See? Strawberry!”


	20. Leo's Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...No prizes for guessing what the next chapter will be called. Please review!

“Merry Christmas!” said Narcissa Malfoy as she skipped into Draco and Leo’s shared room.

“Mum,” said Leo. “It’s half past six in the morning. I know I’m an early bird, but Draco’s still asleep. Oh, and you do realise you have tinsel in your hair?”

“Of course I do! I’m getting into the Christmas spirit!”  
Leo followed his adoptive mother downstairs. The large drawing room had been completely transformed: a twenty-foot high Christmas tree stood guard at one end, covered with a sort of glittery snow. Underneath was a pile of presents almost as big as Leo was. 

Sitting next to the tree, wearing a decidedly glum expression, was Lucius Malfoy.

“Hello, Dad,” said Leo, going to sit down next to him. “Not enjoying Christmas?”

Lucius shrugged. “If my wife didn’t have tinsel in her hair, I wouldn’t mind it so much.”

“Sorry for getting into the mood, you…”

“Scrooge?” suggested Leo, and then winced. Marisa had told him about A Christmas Carol a few weeks ago, but it was definitely not a good idea to reveal that to his parents. He was acting like Draco.

“What’s a Scrooge?” asked Lucius.

“Ebenezer Scrooge is a really famous fictional character who hates Christmas.”

“If he’s so famous, why haven’t I heard of him?” asked Lucius, giving Leo a searching look.

“I meant famous… for Muggles.”

Lucius and Narcissa both raised their eyebrows.

“There was this girl who had grown up with Muggles, and she was talking about it.”

“Miss King?” asked Lucius.

“How – oh, that note I sent you. Yes, it was her.”

Thankfully, Leo was then interrupted by Draco, who had arrived downstairs in his black dressing gown.

“Presents?” Draco said, making a beeline for the tree. “Yippee!”


	21. Marisa's Christmas

Marisa was downstairs at five o’clock on Christmas morning. There was no sign of any presents, but that didn’t surprise her: her mum always hid them so that she didn’t open them all before Mum woke up.

She fingered her wand in her pocket and reflected on how annoying these underage magic laws were. It was as if they thought she was a baby, too irresponsible not to put the International Statute of Secrecy at risk.

When she and Leo took over wizarding Britain, that would be one of the first things they’d change. Of course, they’d be of age by then and might not care so much.

But for the time being, it was probably best to stay on the right side of the law, and that meant hunting for the presents manually. It shouldn’t be too hard to find them: the cottage was small and Marisa knew every millimetre of it like the back of her hand.

She looked in the living room first, including the cupboards for all the blankets in the winter when it got really cold. No presents there.

Then she moved through to the kitchen. There weren’t many good hiding places there, but she still searched thoroughly and found a soft square parcel in penguin wrapping paper in the cupboard for the saucepans.

There was a suspiciously book-like parcel in the washing machine, and she also found a small round package in the sink. That was probably all of them, although she wasn’t certain. 

She gathered up the three presents and went through to the kitchen, where she put some toast in the toaster and got out some apricot jam. She couldn’t help thinking of breakfast at Hogwarts, where everything was noisy and a little chaotic.

Her mum came down at seven o’clock, by which time Marisa was on the sofa sending her friends “Merry Christmas” texts, having unwrapped the presents: a book on dancing (Marisa had been into dance for the last couple of years), a new warm jumper and a stress ball.

“Morning, lazybones,” said Marisa. “I’ve been up two hours already.” She grinned at the shocked expression on her mum’s face.

At half past eight the doorbell rang. Marisa answered it. Two of her friends from primary school were standing there.

“Marisa,” said Lucy, one of her former closest allies, “we need your help! The boys are thrashing us in a snowball fight!”

“Give me five minutes,” said Marisa, grinning, “I need to get some layers on.”


	22. A Reunion

Leo had found himself a compartment with the saner Slytherins: Theo, Daphne and Tracey Davis. They were opening Chocolate Frogs as they waited for the train to leave.

“Morgana,” Theo muttered, “I’ve already got her. Anyone need Morgana?”

“I do,” said Leo. “I’ve got Hengist of Woodcroft here.”

“No, I’ve got him.”

“Oh. Which ones do you need?”

“If you have Merlin or Fulbert the Fearful that would be great,” Theo said.

“I’ve only got one Fulbert but I’m pretty sure I’ve got three Merlins in my trunk.” Leo stood up and moved over to his trunk to get Merlin out. As he stood up, he found his eyes covered by a girl’s hands.

“Guess who?” asked the girl in question teasingly.

“Hello, Marisa,” said Leo, rolling his eyes and turning around. Trying to hide his overwhelming joy, he handed Merlin to Theo, who gave him Morgana.

“Anyone want Hengist of Woodcroft?” he asked. Tracey nodded. “I haven’t got him yet.” He handed the card in his hand to Tracey and sat down in the corner.

Marisa gave him a brief glance and then sat down on the other side as the train began to move. “How was your Christmas, Daphne?” she asked deliberately.

“Oh, it was all right,” said Daphne. “Nothing too exciting. And you?”

“Fine, thanks. I figuratively murdered all the children on my street in a snowball fight. Mainly because they were too afraid of me to fight back.” She grinned.

“My Christmas was just as awful as ever,” announced Leo.

“Scrooge,” said Marisa.

“That’s actually why it was so awful. I called my dad a Scrooge, and you can imagine the awkward questions I got then. Yes, I know I’m an idiot, please don’t call me one.”

“Idiot,” said Marisa, smiling. “Can I have a Chocolate Frog?”

“Buy your own,” said Leo. 

“The trolley witch isn’t here.”

“She will be later.”

“Okay, fine. Can you loan me a Chocolate Frog and then I’ll buy you one when she does arrive?”

Leo hesitated but said, “Okay,” and tossed her a frog. He smiled. He had missed Marisa so much.


	23. Dragons and Hugs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter isn't set at Christmas, but it has a little Christmas cheer at the end - plus the first little bit of ship-teasing (although the ship won't get serious for a while yet)! 
> 
> Merry... err... Boxing Day, everyone! Please review!

Leo and Marisa were sitting together in the boys’ dormitory. Leo was working on a tricky piece of Potions homework, and Marisa was helping him while practicing her Levitation Charms.

There was a clattering on the stairs. 

“Draco!” said Leo. Marisa flung herself onto Leo’s bed and pulled the curtains shut. She waited, heart pounding, expecting the curtain to be flung aside at any moment.

“What is it?” asked Leo’s voice.

“Hagrid’s got a dragon – he’s got a dragon and Potter’s moving it on Saturday!”

“And? Are you going to tell a teacher or confront Potter or what?”

Silence. Then Draco said: “I’m going to catch him at it and I’m going to drag him to the Headmaster. Then he’ll get expelled!”

“Don’t you think it might be a good idea to just tell a teacher now? You’re running quite a big risk,” said Leo. Marisa rolled her eyes. 

“Honestly, Leo! You’re so cautious you never get anything done!” Marisa heard loud footsteps – apparently Draco was storming off. 

“Fine! Just don’t blame me when you get detention!” said Leo. 

There was silence for a few moments, and then Leo said quietly, “Marisa?”

“No, I fell into a black hole and have been transported to an alternate reality in which you don’t exist and my life at Hogwarts is completely awful.”

Leo ripped back the curtain. “Stop being silly. Did… did you really… just say that?”

“Of course I did, you idiot. And it’s true, too.” She smiled broadly. “I mean, without you I’d fail Transfiguration, and History of Magic.”

“Yeah,” Leo admitted, “but you’re one of the best in the class at Potions and you’re as good as Potter at Flying and you’re better than me at Charms...”

“Oh, shut up,” said Marisa, and hugged him.


	24. Conversations and Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't resist this HDM reference. Poor Leo will be mystified for a while yet!

Leo was fast asleep and dreaming of strange monsters when he heard footsteps running up the stairs. He opened one eye, heart pounding, his mind still in the dream-world.

“Who’s there?” he said quietly and urgently.

“It’s me, Draco. I got detention but so did Potter and his friends and they lost a hundred and fifty points for Gryffindor!”

The triumph was still evident on Draco’s face. Leo rolled his eyes. “Very good,” he said, “but it’s three o’clock in the morning. People are trying to sleep.” 

“Wassat?” asked Theo’s sleepy voice. 

“My point exactly,” said Leo, rolling over. Meanwhile Draco was explaining the events of that night to Theo, who said: “And why couldn’t you have told me this at a sensible time?”

As he drifted effortlessly back into his dream, he thought that it was a good point that Thorold was making… 

_“I can’t stay long,” said Marisa regretfully. “Edward will be wondering where I am.”_

_Leo felt the familiar surge of jealousy as he thought of Marisa’s husband. What had that ridiculous politician ever done to deserve Marisa? Stelmaria waved her tail indignantly, sharing his thoughts._

_“Why do you care about him?” he asked suddenly. “What is so important about him that you’d – marry him?”_

_Marisa laughed as the golden monkey jumped down from her shoulder and walked over to Stelmaria. “Of course I don’t care about him,” she said. “He’s a politician, Asriel!”_

_“So am I,” Leo remarked. “You could have – “_

_“I hadn’t met you then,” Marisa interrupted, “and I was worried I’d miss my chance.”_

_“You could never grow old, Marisa,” Leo said._

_“Time takes its toll on everyone,” responded Marisa with a teasing smile. “Even me. And you – is that a grey hair I can see?”_

_“Yes,” said Leo, “but I am about twenty years older than you, to be fair.”_

_Marisa rolled her eyes. “Enough idle chitchat,” she said, smiling broadly and stepping towards Leo._

_Leo nodded and gently wrapped his arms around her._

_“Leo,” she said gently. “Leo.”_

_His name began to echo through the fog that surrounded them._

_“Leo!”_

_“Leo!”_

_Marisa looked up at him fondly and then carefully disengaged his arms. Almost as soon as she had she was dissolving into the fog, becoming part of it._

_“Marisa,” muttered Leo, feeling dreadfully alone. Even Stelmaria had abandoned him._

“Leo!”

His eyes flew open. “What?”

“It’s half past eight. You need to get breakfast or you’ll miss your first class!” It was Theo.

“Oh,” said Leo. “Right. Yeah.”


	25. Breakfast at the Slytherin Table

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of much plot so far - I promise once I get into fourth or fifth year it'll become a lot less episodic. In the meantime, enjoy the new chapter and happy new year to all my readers!

That morning at breakfast, when Draco wasn’t looking, Leo hissed to Marisa, “Hey, I had a dream about you.”

“What?” asked Marisa. 

“We were adults and we were… flirting but you were married to someone else and you had this golden monkey…”

Marisa gasped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I have this really strange feeling like I know what happened… I don’t, of course, but…”

Leo nodded. “I know what you mean. It just felt so realistic I could have sworn it actually happened.”

He grabbed a slice of toast and began to butter it. Draco was looking at him quite oddly, so he said quickly, “Hey, Theo, what classes have we got today?”

“Herbology,” said Theo, giving his friend a meaningful look. “With the Ravenclaws.”

“We’ll have to be on good form to get any points then. You’re the expert, we’re relying on you!”

“Oh, come on,” said Draco lazily, “since Potter lost those points it’s been no contest!”

“Ravenclaw aren’t that far behind,” Leo said, “we should be careful.”

“We’ve got Professor Snape on our side. Even if he does give most of the points to a…” he paused meaningfully, glaring at Marisa, “…muggle-born.”

“He gives me the points because I deserve them!” said Marisa hotly. 

Leo smiled, relieved that he had managed to resist the temptation to defend her. She was quite capable of defending herself.

She shot him a meaningful look and said “Could you pass the orange juice, please?”

Leo grabbed the heavy jug and carefully passed it over to her.

Just then Tracey Davis rushed into the room and plonked herself down next to Leo. “Hey,” she said, “sorry, I overslept.”

Daphne rolled her eyes. “You always oversleep, Tracey! Someone should get you an alarm clock!”

“I asked Pansy to wake me up,” Tracey protested, “it’s not my fault that she forgot!”

“It is,” Leo remarked, “because you know how unreliable Pansy is.”

“Hey!” said Pansy. “Take that back!”

“I will not,” said Leo. “It’s true.”

Theo snorted. “Just because it’s true, Leo, doesn’t mean you have to say it. Would you… would you tell Professor Snape his hair is greasy to his face?”

“Yes, if he asked.”

“And do you think you’d get detention if you did that?”

“If I did then I would know that Professor Snape is a hypocrite. He wanted an honest answer and I gave him one.”

“Why are you calling me a hypocrite?”

Leo glanced up to see Professor Snape himself staring at him. “We were speaking hypothetically,” he explained quickly. 

Professor Snape made a non-committal murmur and walked over to the staff table. 

“You see!” said Theo triumphantly. 

“I won’t deny that Professor Snape is a hypocrite, but that’s not the question he asked.” He shoved the last bite of toast into his mouth. “Right, I’d better go. Library calls.” He got to his feet, grabbed his bag and walked out, ignoring Draco, who was calling him a workaholic.


	26. Revision and Ranting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like the chapter. Please review!

There was only a week before exams. Leo had made a study timetable and was trying to convince his friends to stick with it. So far, they had a small study group: Leo, Theo, Tracey, Marisa and Terry Boot. 

The group met in the library every Monday evening and each helped each other with the subject they were best at: Marisa gave everyone tips for Potions, Leo constantly reminded everyone of the date of the Battle of Gringotts or when Uric the Oddball was born, Theo invented mnemonics for dangerous plants, Terry tested the group on the wand movements for transfigurations, and Tracey helped everyone remember planets and stars.

Marisa was somewhat scathing about Astronomy: she said it was ridiculously basic by Muggle standards. Leo was somewhat surprised when she told the group that Muggles had been to the moon. It made him feel ridiculous: how could Muggles have done that when wizards had never even dreamed of it?

This particular evening everyone had brought along a homework assignment or two and they were all writing together. Leo was working on an essay for Professor Sprout, occasionally checking with Theo for a piece of information, while Marisa was rehearsing wand movements with help from Terry.

“Hey,” said Draco’s voice.

Leo glanced up, startled. 

“What are you doing, studying with her?” Draco asked, looking at Marisa as if she was a piece of dirt on his shoe.

“I’m in a study group of which she happens to also be a member. I am prepared to tolerate her.”

Draco looked slightly displeased with that answer.

“Careful, now,” said Marisa, glancing up from her careful movements. “Wouldn’t want to find Butober pus in your bed, would you?” She smiled sweetly, giving Draco her most wide-eyed, innocent look.

“If you do that, I’ll tell a teacher,” said Draco.

“Did I say I would?” asked Marisa. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Leo fought the urge to laugh at Draco’s outraged and confused expression. “Anyway,” he said pointedly, “have you come to join in our session?”

Draco shook his head. “Just wanted to let you know they’ve scheduled my detention with Potter, Weasley and Longbottom.”

“What are you doing?” asked Leo, only mildly interested. He had forgotten what he had been going to write next in his essay and was annoyed by this distraction.

“Dunno,” said Draco, shrugging, “but it’s eleven o’clock tonight.”

Leo raised his eyebrows. “What are you going to be doing at that time?” he asked. 

“I know,” said Draco with an annoyed look, “you’d think they could schedule it at a reasonable time!”

“Well, to be fair, you did break school rules. Now if you don’t mind, I have an essay to finish by tomorrow.”

Draco glared at Leo and stormed off. 

Leo had a thought and called after him, “And don’t wake me up when you come in to rant!”


	27. Breakfast Discussions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter. Please review!

Draco didn’t wake him up. It was eight o’clock that morning when Leo and the other Slytherins heard what had happened.

“They sent us to the Forbidden Forest!” he announced in a lowered voice, leaning across the table. “To look for dead unicorns!”

“Unicorns?” asked Leo, raising his eyebrows. “Why are they dead?”

“Something’s been killing them,” Draco said. “Something completely and utterly terrifying.”

“And they sent first-years to deal with this?”

“We did have Hagrid and his dog,” Draco added. 

“Still – that’s more or less completely in – well, Filch hates students and Hagrid is convinced that all animals are harmless and friendly. I’d better make sure I don’t get any detentions any time soon. So, did this thing kill you? What even was it?”

“It was a… cloak. Just a thing in a cloak dragging itself over the ground. I… retreated to see what would happen, and it went for Potter. He somehow escaped, don’t ask me how – “

“His magical Boy-Who-Lived luck,” Marisa interjected. “How many lives has that boy got?”

Leo shrugged. He was genuinely curious about what was killing unicorns but as he actually had some common sense, he had no intention of going into the Forest to find out, at least not until he was at least five years older. 

“Interesting,” he said thoughtfully and took a large bite of pancake. “Anyone got any ideas?”

No-one had. Crabbe mentioned something to do with “Black Shades” but Leo was pretty sure that was just a scary story. They discussed it all through the meal but got nowhere. The only plausible suggestion was Theo’s idea that it could be a Lethifold. Eventually the group broke up to get ready for their next classes.


	28. Flying to Calm Nerves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy the new chapter! Please review!

Marisa woke up bright and early on Monday morning, ready for the exams. She ate a large bowl of porridge despite having little appetite. As it was half past six in the morning, Leo and Marisa were safe from interruption and could talk freely.

“Nervous?” asked Leo.

“You bet,” replied Marisa.

“Me too,” said Leo. “I think I might fail Charms.”

“I know I’ll fail History of Magic,” Marisa responded. “I can never remember the dates of anything.” She paused before saying, “Do you mind if we – well, I – go flying? It might help calm me down.”

“Okay,” said Leo, “just let me grab a textbook so I can do some revision while we’re at it.” He shoved the last bite of toast into his mouth and got to his feet. They walked back to the common room together and then crept up to their dormitories. Marisa retrieved her Nimbus and Leo grabbed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One.

That done, they set off to the Quidditch pitch. They were lucky enough to avoid being seen. Once there, Marisa swung her leg over her broom. “Ready?” she asked.

“Whenever you are,” said Leo, turning to page forty-two and beginning to read. 

Marisa pushed off from the ground and began to loop around the Quidditch pitch, going faster with each lap. Soon the wind was rushing through her hair, ruining the neat plaits she’d spent five minutes sorting out. She didn’t care, though. 

There was no better feeling than soaring through the air with nothing but her and her broom and the roaring wind. Up here she was certain that she was a better flyer than anyone in her year and that she had no reason to be jealous of Harry Potter. She was certain that she would pass all of her exams with flying colours. And she was completely in control of everything.


	29. Exams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might be a bit busy IRL over the next couple of days and probably won't be able to post, so you guys get an early update! Enjoy and please review!

Approximately four hours later, the exams began. The first subject was Charms, in which Professor Flitwick asked them to make a pineapple tap-dance across the desk. Marisa bit back a sarcastic remark regarding whether tap-dancing pineapples were really useful or important.

She managed reasonably well with it, although the pineapple fell off the other side of the desk. The group met in the common room afterwards to discuss how it had gone: Daphne had done perfectly, Leo had made it waltz, Theo had only made it spin around, and Tracey, who was rather inept at Charms to put it mildly, had done nothing at all.

Next up was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall asked the students to turn a mouse into a snuffbox. Leo’s snuffbox was perfectly formed but not very aesthetically pleasing. Marisa’s was beautiful but still had whiskers, as was Tracey’s. Theo’s had a tail as well as whiskers and Daphne’s still had fur.

In Potions Marisa was easily the best of the group. Her Forgetfulness Potion was almost perfect. She’d even managed to slip a vial into her pocket: who knew when it could come in handy?

Leo’s potion was at least a vague impression of the right colour. Daphne had forgotten the instructions and as such floundered abysmally. Theo’s was slightly the wrong shade and Tracey’s was a congealed mess.

The final exam was History of Magic. Once that was done the group had a mini-party to celebrate and discussed how they’d done. Marisa was pretty sure she’d failed, as was Daphne. Theo thought he might just have scraped a pass and Tracey wasn’t sure. Leo was confident that he was one of the best in the class.

“Anyone for Exploding Snap?” asked Theo. 

“Sure,” said Leo. “Why not.”

Theo began to deal the cards. Marisa couldn’t resist aiming to make the pack explode in Leo’s face, but she failed in that. Instead Leo beat her at her own game.

Marisa laughed. “Fine,” she said. “You win. I’ll get you next time, though!” 

 

“Not if I have anything to do with it!” Leo replied, grinning.


	30. The Leaving Feast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a little behind with the updates at the moment - only just got this one finished - but I'll see if I can catch up before Wednesday. Please review!

It was time for the Leaving Feast at last. The first-year Slytherins were gathered around one end of the table, all grinning.

“We’ve won the House Cup!” said Draco triumphantly.

“The year technically isn’t over yet,” pointed out Leo.

“Oh, come on, it’s not as if anyone’s going to overtake us, is it?”

“Well, no, not realistically, but it’s theoretically possible.”

Draco rolled his eyes as Professor Dumbledore got to his feet to announce the results of the House Cup. Leo didn’t listen to the exact numbers, but Slytherin were leading by a long way. Draco banged his goblet up and down on the table.

“Yes, yes, well done Slytherin. However, I have a few last-minute points to give out.”

Leo and Marisa shared a nervous glance. Surely it couldn’t be enough to take the Cup away from Slytherin?

“Firstly, to Ronald Weasley, for the best-played game of chess that Hogwarts has seen in fifty years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points.”

The Gryffindor table cheered.

“First?” mouthed Draco to Leo across the table. 

“Secondly, to Hermione Granger, for cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points.”

Marisa was saying something, but whatever it was, it was muffled by the sound of the Gryffindors going absolutely wild.

“How many?” asked Theo briefly. Leo knew at once what he meant. “We’re still sixty up. It’s all right.”

“Thirdly,” said Professor Dumbledore when the noise had died down, “for sheer courage and daring, I award sixty points to Harry Potter.”

“Oh,” said Leo somewhat sheepishly. The noise from the Gryffindor table was so loud that no-one could hear themselves think. 

Professor Dumbledore raised his hand for silence. “There are all kinds of courage,” he said. “It takes courage to stand up to your enemies, but it also takes courage to stand up to your friends.”

The Slytherins were shooting puzzled looks at each other, trying to work out what Professor Dumbledore was up to.

“I therefore award ten points to Neville Longbottom.”

Shouting, screaming, everyone jumping to their feet. Outraged faces all around the Slytherin table. Draco screaming “What?” Marisa catching Leo’s eye, the silent message she sent him: there would be ranting later, once it was quiet and they were alone.

Leo was angry. It was completely unjust that Gryffindor should overtake Slytherin just like that, no matter what heroics they had performed. The house point system was designed to reward hard work, not heroics. Then again, if it was really fair that would mean Professor Snape couldn’t be so biased and Ravenclaw would probably win.

Dumbledore magically changed the flags behind the table from green and silver to red and gold and silence fell. Then everyone began to talk at once. Draco began to rant, something about Dumbledore’s blatant favouritism.

“Shut up,” said Leo, shovelling some spaghetti and meatballs onto his plate, “I’m hungry.”


	31. End of the Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to post one final chapter for first year after this one, but it was so short I decided to just edit into this one. Chapter title changed too. Will be busy Sunday so second year starts Wednesday next week. Please review!

All of the Slytherins were in one compartment for the train ride home, which meant that Leo and Marisa had to studiously ignore each other for the entire trip and could exchange no more than glances.

They exchanged Chocolate Frogs as well. Draco finally got hold of an Albus Dumbledore card, although he did make a snide remark about Muggle-lovers not deserving to be on the cards. They also exchanged their exam results: everyone had passed with good marks and Leo was pleased to find he’d come second to Hermione Granger.

Marisa was curled up in a corner, humming to herself as she nibbled at a frog. She looked tense and unhappy. Leo didn’t like to say anything but he was quite worried about her.

“Hasn’t been a bad year, has it?” he said to the group at large.

“No,” replied Theo, “not bad at all. Shame about the Cup, but I suppose we’ll just have to work harder next year.”

“Yeah, if we work hard enough Dumbledore can do what he likes and we’ll still win.” Leo slipped his third chocolate frog into his mouth. He should probably stop there or he’d end up on a sugar high.

“We can’t work much harder than we did this year,” complained Tracey. “I was exhausted by the end of exams!”

“Well,” said Draco, “I’m going to be Slytherin Seeker next year so I’ll earn more points than you all put together.”

Marisa shot him a glare and said coldly “I think not.”

“Oh, you do, do you? What makes you think that?”

“I will be Seeker,” said Marisa, “because I am the best flyer.” She stared at him calmly, as if daring him to object.

As usual during confrontation between Marisa and Draco, Leo didn’t know whose side to take. He wanted to support Marisa, but he knew that would have serious consequences. On the other hand, he simply couldn’t help Draco against his closest ally. 

So, also as usual, he remained neutral and said nothing. He knew that approach wouldn’t work indefinitely but it was good enough for now.

“You’re the best flyer?” asked Draco, outraged. “You’ve barely been on a broom in your life!”

Leo objected, but silently. It wasn’t his choice to reveal that Marisa had actually been flying more or less every week for the past nine months.

“What?” she said flatly. “You mean like Potter, who’s won two Quidditch matches for his house?”

“That’s different,” spat Draco.

“How so?” Marisa enquired, seeming almost genuinely interested. 

“I – it just is!”

“That sounds suspiciously as if you can’t think of any reason why it’s different,” replied Marisa. 

Despite himself, Leo found himself grinning. He reached for another Frog to hide his amusement. One more couldn’t hurt.

“Mudblood,” said Draco, giving Marisa a glare.

“In other words,” she replied, smiling, “I win.” She flicked her Chocolate Frog wrapper at him. “And I’ve told you before. Don’t call me that.” Her eyes glittered. Everyone could read the unspoken threat they contained.

Draco was thoroughly beaten. “Whatever,” he snapped. “Anyone want Wendelin the Weird?”

Theo raised his hand. “I’ve been looking for her for ages!” he said triumphantly. “I have about ten of Cliodna if you need her.”

Draco didn’t, but Tracey Davis did, so they agreed a three-way swap in which Draco got Valentine Hawksworth from Tracey. Marisa offered to trade Pansy Parkinson her Rowena Ravenclaw card for Uric the Oddball but was declined. 

And so the ride continued.

Several hours later, the train arrived at King’s Cross Station. Leo had lost two rounds of Exploding Snap and Marisa had won Solitaire four times and was slightly sick after eating too many sweets.

“Come on,” said Draco, grabbing his trunk and starting to heave it out of the compartment. “Let’s go.”

Leo hung back a little, though, until only himself and Marisa remained.

“Well,” he said awkwardly, “see you next year. I hope you do become Seeker. You’ll be great at it.”

“Thanks,” replied Marisa, smiling as she heaved her trunk out onto the platform. “Am I still allowed to use magic? Because levitating this trunk doesn’t seem like a bad idea.”

“I… don’t actually know. I think so. Just do it if you like.”

Marisa nodded. “Wingardium Leviosa,” she said, pointing her wand at the trunk. It lifted a few millimetres off the ground. “See you next year!” she called, waving her free hand.

“Bye,” said Leo as he dragged his own trunk towards where Draco was waiting with his parents.


	32. The Snow Leopards

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think the title of the last chapter was "Train Ride" then please go back and re-read it, I added some stuff to the end. 
> 
> Hope you like the new chapter; I promise some actual plot this year! (Although, to be honest, it won't really get going for a while).

There was about a week left of the summer holidays, and Leo was back in his usual spot: the library. The Malfoys had many, many ancient tomes, most of which were Dark in nature, and Leo had read through all of them in the past ten years.

Of course, he hadn’t actually used any of the spells in there, nearly all of which were far beyond a first- or second-year’s level, but it was best to know about that sort of thing. Just in case.

Right now, on the other hand, Leo wasn’t reading any book. Instead he was writing at speed on a piece of parchment. 

Basic defensive magic – Disarming? Full Body-Bind? Those were usually offensive spells, but Leo was a firm subscriber to the theory that the best form of defence was offence.

First years only – Slytherins and Ravenclaws – Puffs and Gryffs too nice/stupid/reckless. Usual gang – Marisa, Theo, Tracey, Daphne… Terry, definitely. Get him to speak to the other eagles.

But what the group really needed was a name.

“Leo!”

Leo heard his not-quite-brother’s voice and hastily rolled up the parchment. “Yes, Draco?”

“Need some help with my homework. History of Magic.”

“Nope. I only help my study partners.”

“Can I be your study partner, then?”

“If you can tolerate a muggle-born enough to be in the same room as them without making any sarcastic comments, then yes.”

“I’m afraid your Mudblood won’t be around much longer after this year.”

Leo, despite himself, flinched. He was able to control his reaction just enough to avoid arousing suspicion and asked cautiously, “What do you mean?”

“Well, Dad just told me he’s done something that’s going to kill Mudbloods.”

Leo blinked. “That’s a bit… extreme, isn’t it?” Mentally, he added _And I’d like to see the thing that’ll take on Marisa…_ That was when the idea hit him. The perfect name.

Draco shrugged. “Anyway, can you help me with my homework?” 

“Not now,” replied Leo, “I’m doing something else.”

“Fine,” said Draco, glaring at Leo. “See you later.”

Once Draco had gone, Leo carefully copied out his scribbled ideas onto a fresh piece of parchment. At the top, triple-underlined, he wrote _The Snow Leopards._

Then he hurried off. He had an owl to send.


	33. A Message from Leo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The game Marisa plays in this chapter is not intended to be anything in particular; it's a bit of a mix of those games I've actually heard of (not very many!)

Marisa was bored to death. She had forgotten how used she was to magic, to munching a Chocolate Frog whenever she was peckish, to having… not friends exactly, but allies, equals, people she could plot with who would actually keep up with her.

And, of course, she also missed a certain scientifically-minded Slytherin. Currently she was sitting at her computer playing video games listlessly. She was thrashing everyone else on her server: so far, she’d managed sixteen kills and those who had got away were far too terrified of her speedy moves and killer blows to come back for more.

She watched as a ridiculously small cat avatar calling itself “Lioness” came up to her and launched a water attack. Marisa’s avatar, a monkey, was weak to water but her health bar was so vast it barely made any difference. She pounded a couple of keys and launched a blisteringly strong fireball at “Lioness”.

She glanced at the game chat as she waited for another victim to come her way and saw Lioness saying “Queen Asriel is so OP! She got me in one blow!”

“Epic powers,” typed Marisa back, grinning.

She suddenly spotted a decent-sized player, “Lulu” who was apparently tenth on the leaderboard, and was coming her way. As she was about to launch an earth attack, the shark’s biggest weakness, she heard her mother’s voice.

“Marisa, why is there an owl knocking at the window?” 

Marisa sighed and hit the Pause button, then dashed downstairs to open the window and let the owl in. “Wizard stuff,” she said, “don’t worry about it”.

Her heart leapt as she looked at the letter the owl gripped in its talons, addressed in Leo’s handwriting. She untied it from the owl’s leg and shut the window just in case she needed to send a reply.

_Marisa,_  
_I need a favour. Could you possibly use your Muggle technology to make about twenty of the enclosed flyer? Make them as professional as you can._  
_Love, Leo._  
_P.S. I was thinking of giving us feline code names. How does “Lioness” sound?  
_ _P.P.S. Don’t reply, for obvious reasons. Give me the flyers on the Express._

Marisa grinned as she opened the window to release the owl. Leo needed her help. Suddenly the magical world didn’t seem all that far away after all.


	34. Back to Hogwarts

Leo and Draco dragged their trunks along Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, looking for their respective groups of friends. Draco found Vincent, Gregory, Pansy and Millicent about halfway along, but Leo had to walk nearly the entire distance before he found Theo, Tracey, Daphne and of course Marisa.

“Hey guys!”

“And girls,” said Marisa reproachfully as Leo dragged his trunk into the compartment.

“Have you got the flyers?” he asked.

Marisa nodded and handed them to him.

“What flyers?” asked Tracey. 

Ignoring her, Leo glanced through them. Marisa had done a good job: they showed all of the essential information.

“These,” he said. “Here. Pass them round.”

He handed some out to Tracey, Theo and Daphne. “I’m going to find the eagles, give them some copies. See you soon!”

“Oh, come on,” Marisa protested, “won’t you sit with us for five minutes?”

Leo shook his head. “Later. Stuff to do.”

She glared at him as he walked into the next compartment, in which Terry was sitting with Morag McDougal, Mandy Brocklehurst and Samuel Moon.

“Hi,” he said, slightly nervously. “I’m starting a new club and I wondered if any of you would be interested in joining?” He handed Terry a few copies of the leaflet.

“Looks like fun,” Terry replied. 

“Could you stick one of these on your notice board?” asked Leo. “That way the first years can see it too. I would speak to them now, except I don’t know who the Ravenclaws and Slytherins are yet.”

Terry nodded. “Sure. See you around.”  
Leo smiled and walked back into his own compartment.

“There we are. Now I can relax.” He sat down in the one remaining seat, next to Tracey. “So, how’s your summer been?” he asked.

“Boring, really,” replied Marisa. “I spent most of it thrashing everyone unfortunate enough to be on my videogame servers.”

“What’s a video game?” asked Theo, and Marisa launched into an explanation, which didn’t get very far as none of them understood terms like “computer” or “keyboard”. Eventually she resorted to: “It’s a game you play in virtual space.”

“What?”

“How?”

“Why don’t we have things like that?”

Marisa shrugged. “Well, the only reason I see that you don’t is that it doesn’t work in Hogwarts and your parents hate Muggles – once we’re grown up there’ll be nothing at all to stop us!”

She smiled broadly.

Leo rolled his eyes. “Anyone else do anything interesting?”

No-one had, so Daphne pulled out a pack of cards and they began to play Exploding Snap.


	35. Wizard Chess

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the new chapter and please review!

“Marisa,” Leo said, bored of Exploding Snap after his sixth loss, “want to play wizard chess?”

Marisa nodded. “I’ve never played before,” she said cautiously, “so I probably won’t be much good. It’s just like Muggle chess, right?”

“Sort of. Have you got your own pieces?”

“No.”

“I can lend you some,” said Daphne, “let me get them.”

Leo set up the board while Daphne fetched Marisa’s pieces. She was white and he was black. 

“White starts,” said Leo.

“Okay,” said Marisa, and picked up a pawn.

“That’s not how you do it,” said Leo, “you have to tell them where to go!”

“Right…” said Marisa, slightly bewildered. She put the pawn down again. “Okay. Pawn to E5.” The pawn she had just put down moved forward.

Marisa soon found herself overwhelmed: Leo was very, very good at wizard chess. 

“Check.”

“Oh, come on! Give me a chance!” She paused, thinking. “Ah ha!” she said suddenly, spotting a way out of the situation. “Bishop to C6.” She looked at Leo smugly as his offending rook was wrestled off the board by her bishop.

He looked back even more smugly. “Queen to A3. Checkmate.”

“How – what – no way! That is not fair!”

“Did I cheat? Did I break the rules?”

“Well, no, but you have had twelve years of experience of this game…”

“True, I suppose. You’d better get practicing if you ever want to beat me!”

Marisa glared at Leo and they descended into their usual bickering.


	36. Conversations and Duelling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a little bit longer, for once. Hope you like it!

That evening in the Slytherin common room, the group split up. Tracey was tired and went to get an early night, while Theo and Daphne continued their earlier Exploding Snap tournament. 

“You joining us, Leo?” asked Theo.

“No, I was thinking of going…” he glanced at Marisa, “somewhere else.”

Marisa picked up on his hidden meaning immediately and followed him out of the common room and seven floors up. They narrowly avoided Filch by slipping down a secret passageway on the fourth floor and eventually, nerves on edge, they reached the picture of Barnabas the Barmy.

We need a place to relax and talk… Marisa thought as she paced back and forth until the door handle appeared in the wall. Then she grabbed it and pulled it outwards.

“Come on in,” she said, gesturing theatrically to the door.

“Ladies first,” replied Leo, making the same gesture.

Marisa rolled her eyes. “No, after you!”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake, this is pathetic!” said Leo and went through the door. 

Marisa followed him through and saw two massive beanbags, one green and one silver. Smiling, she flopped down on the green one and Leo claimed the silver.

“So,” asked Leo, “anything happen?”

“Nothing I haven’t already told you.”

“Any thoughts on codenames? I mean, I’m obviously Snow Leopard – “

“Why?”

“Because I like the animal, and also because I’ve had a couple of dreams with one in.”

“Oh.”

“I was thinking of Lioness for you, because of your hair. How does that sound?”

“Mm… it’s alright, but not really me. I prefer to work alone. Can I be Tigress instead?”

“I like the sound of that,” said Leo. “My little tigress.”

Marisa curled her fingers into claws and raked the air playfully. “I’m not your tigress,” she said, glaring at him, “and I’m not a tame cat!” 

The reference was lost on Leo, who of course knew no Muggle literature. Marisa smirked.

“Draco…” said Leo suddenly, then hesitated.

“What about your idiotic adopted brother?”

“He said something funny…”

“Just spit it out, won’t you!”

“He said… you wouldn’t be around much longer. Because my – his dad had done something that was going to kill Muggle-borns.”

Marisa raised one eyebrow. “Really? In Hogwarts? Because that doesn’t exactly seem very likely!”

“I don’t know the details. I don’t think Draco did.”

“Well,” said Marisa, “I’d like to see the thing that could stop me.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Leo with a slight smile. “Especially with me backing you up.”

“I do not need your help,” Marisa insisted, aiming a playful blow with her left hand. 

Leo ducked and then stood up, aiming a Jelly-Legs Jinx at Marisa, who wobbled as her legs gave out beneath her. 

She drew her wand and hesitated before twisting it in the shape of a leaf. “Rictumsempra!”

Leo tried to dodge but was too slow: Marisa’s Tickling Charm hit him directly in the stomach. He burst out laughing as he collapsed to the ground. “No – “ he gasped between ridiculous giggles. “Stop – “

Marisa smirked. “Do you concede?” she asked, keeping her wand firmly trained on Leo.

Leo hesitated, laughing. He looked about to admit defeat, but then he grabbed his wand from where he’d dropped it and managed to choke out: “Melofors!”

Marisa gasped. She couldn’t see anything except orange and the air around her smelt of pumpkin. Her entire head had been encased in a pumpkin.

She couldn’t move her wand or the Tickling Charm would be dispelled, so she reached up with her left hand and lifted it off her head.

“Locomotor Mortis!”

Still preoccupied with the pumpkin, Marisa was unable to dodge Leo’s Leg-Locker Curse and her legs slapped together. Furious now, she threw the pumpkin at him with all the force that she could muster.

He rolled out of the way and Marisa kept her wand firmly trained on him. She wouldn’t be able to dodge without the use of her legs if he threw another curse at her, which meant she had to do something quickly.

Taking a deep breath, she dispelled her Tickling Charm and immediately yelled “Petrificus Totalus!” It was extremely clunky, yes, but it was the only spell she knew that could stop Leo completely and certainly.

His eyes widened and he tried to avoid her spell, but was too late: it hit him and his limbs snapped together.

“I win!” said Marisa triumphantly. That was when she remembered that she didn’t actually know the counter-charm.


	37. Gilderoy Lockhart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've somehow managed to end up writing out of order, but... hey, still on time. Not sure what's next, will work on it over next few days.

The next day, early in the morning, was the first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson with new teacher Gilderoy Lockhart. Leo took a dislike to him from the start; as he said to Marisa, “A man who spends that much time looking after his hair is clearly not the best teacher.” (She replied, teasingly, “By that logic Professor Snape is the best teacher ever!")

Professor Lockhart was, it turned out, a completely useless teacher. He began by handing out a “little quiz” which was thirty minutes long, contained fifty-four questions and was all about him, questions ranging from “What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favourite colour?” to “How many times has Gilderoy Lockhart won Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award?”

Marisa, disguising her horror and shock, answered as fully as she could. She hated Lockhart immediately, but was determined to disguise her hatred. It would be a good exercise.

Half an hour later, the class turned their test papers in and sat in silence while Lockhart marked them. 

Then he stood up. “Some of you really need to read Gadding with Ghouls again – I mentioned there that my favourite colour is lilac, and I stated in Voyages with Vampires that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magical and non-magical people. No-one got all questions correct, but the highest scorer, with forty-five out of fifty-four, is Marisa King. Congratulations, Marisa!”

She nodded, managing a plausible fakery of shyness and embarrassment and disguising the horrible sick feeling in her stomach.

“Now,” said Lockhart, “I thought I’d give you all a little bit of practical experience, so I’ve brought some creatures along for you.” He gestured dramatically to the cage on the desk, covered by a cloth, and pulled it off with a flourish. Inside were fiercely chattering, squabbling… blue things, each a few inches high and talking in a shrill, high-pitched voice.

“Yes,” said Lockhart, “freshly caught Cornish pixies!”

Leo rolled his eyes. 

“Let’s see what you make of them, then!” said Lockhart, and opened the cage.

Instantly chaos spread throughout the classroom. A group of pixies flew towards Pansy Parkinson, who screeched almost as annoyingly as the pixies themselves, and tried to lift her up into the air. She offered barely any resistance, allowing one of them to seize her wand.

One or two flew towards Leo, who said “Nope,” and drew his wand. He hesitated for a moment, trying to work out the best spell to use on them, and then settled on the Freezing Charm.

It worked surprisingly well, so he began using the Charm on as many pixies as he could. Soon others picked up on what he was doing and before long all of Leo’s friends were Freezing the pixies and returning them to the cage. By the time the bell rang, all of the pixies had been cleared up and Leo and Marisa exited, very relieved.


	38. Bonus!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I read the IFD thing and liked the idea of characters being fannish, but didn't want to make a whole new story so I wrote a bonus chapter instead! Did you ever want to know twelve-year old Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter's opinions on Lord of the Rings? No? Well, here they are anyway!
> 
> (I'm a little behind on updates so count this as this week's second and I'll update again on Wednesday.)
> 
>  
> 
> EDIT: Blaise Zabini has been erased from existence in this fic, because I was sorting through the characters to work out exactly who was in which house and realised with the addition of Leo there were six Slytherin boys. Sorry to any Blaise fans out there. Next chapter: first Snow Leopards meeting.

The next morning in the common room, Marisa was curled up in one of the snuggest armchairs, reading Return of the King. She’d seen the movies over the summer and had been binge-reading the books ever since but had still only just started, having not had time last night after finally discovering the counter-curse.

“What’s that you’re reading?” asked Leo, who was the only other student awake as it was half past six in the morning.

“Lord of the Rings,” said Marisa. “Muggle fantasy. Epic.”

“What’s it like? Would I like it? It’ll get me some bonus points when I take Muggle Studies next year if I’ve already read Muggle literature.”

Marisa glanced up. “I think you would. This is the third part, though. Let me go and get the first one.” She dashed up to the girls’ dormitory and returned a minute later with a copy of Fellowship, which she handed to Leo.

An hour later, Marisa reluctantly put down her book in the middle of the Battle of Pelennor Fields. “We should get breakfast,” she said.

Leo stood up and pulled a bookmark out of his pocket. “Do you want to go and put them in your trunk? I don’t think Draco or Pansy or that lot would take kindly to Muggle books.”

“Good thinking,” said Marisa, “I’ll do that now.” She hurried off upstairs and when she returned the pair walked down to breakfast together.

“Where’ve you got to?” asked Marisa.

“You shall not pass,” Leo quoted. “Gandalf’s just fallen in.”

“Thoughts so far?”

“It’s epic, like you said. The characters don’t seem to have much regard for their own lives to go on a suicidal quest like that. Which I don’t mind. That abyss scene really took me by surprise, though. He’s Gandalf! He can’t just die!”

Marisa smiled knowingly, but said nothing. 

“Plus, I got one of those weird feelings about the abyss. You know, like I remember it?”

“Oh!” said Marisa. “The first time I saw it I actually got the same feeling!”

They looked at each other strangely.

“This has gone way too far to be a coincidence,” said Leo.

“Yeah. It has. Do you have any clue what we can do about it?”

“No. Except writing down everything that gives us this feeling.”

Marisa nodded and the two took their places at the Slytherin table. Draco was opposite them, so they could talk later.


	39. The First Meeting

It was Saturday, the first one since they had arrived at Hogwarts. Which meant that it was also the date of the first Snow Leopards meeting. 

Five minutes before the start of the meeting, the first- and second-year Slytherins and Ravenclaws were beginning to gather in the Grounds. Leo and Marisa were there, of course, as were Theo, Daphne, and Tracey.

All of the Ravenclaws had joined: Terry and his friends Michael, Anthony, Roger and Ollie, as well as the girls: Morag, Padma, Lisa, Sue and Mandy.

Most of the first-years had also decided to join the group: two-thirds of the Ravenclaws and about half of the Slytherins.

“About time you started, isn’t it?” Marisa asked.

“I guess so,” replied Leo, then said more loudly. “Okay everyone, can I have your attention please? The fee, as you should know, is three Knuts per session to be paid directly to me at the beginning of each. Please form an orderly queue over here.”

The students all lined up, some willing, others bemused. Leo wrote on his piece of parchment the name of each student, leaning on a Lockhart book. That was probably the most use the book would ever get.

Once all twenty-six names (including Leo’s own) had been written down and Leo had earnt himself two Sickles and seventeen Knuts, it was time for the official start.

“Okay,” said Leo, “before we start anything, I want to get an idea of your current level, so we are going to have a duelling tournament. The first-years will start, and the winning first-year will join in the next round with the second-years. So…” he thought for a moment, “five first-years will get to skip the first round and the others will play. Knockout tournament, of course.”

He told the first-years to line up and then said: “First five to that tree get byes. Ready… go!”

Three Slytherin boys, a Ravenclaw boy and a Slytherin girl were first. Leo called the first match: “Sarah Johnson against Matthew Nott.”

A muggle-born Ravenclaw girl and Theo’s younger cousin stepped forward nervously, gripping their wands tightly.

“Okay,” said Leo, “the only rule is that you’re not allowed to do anything that could cause serious injury or that can’t be reversed by a student. When you’re ready… begin.”

The Ravenclaw stood there and did nothing. Leo could see the panic in her eyes.

“Petrificus Totalus!” said Matthew.

Sarah tried and failed to dodge and was hit by the Full Body-Bind Curse.

Marisa rolled her eyes but Leo said nothing except to counter the curse and allow Sarah to move again.

“Well done, Matthew,” said Leo. “Sarah…”

“I don’t really know any spells that would be useful in a duel. That’s why I’m here, really.”

“Right,” said Leo. “Do you know any spells at all?”

“I can light my wand up and I can turn a match into a needle.”

“Okay, fair enough. You’ll learn soon, don’t worry.”

The matches continued. Marisa didn’t pay much attention to the first-year rounds except to see that Matthew came out on top.

The first second-year match was between Roger and Tracey. Roger disarmed Tracey and then hit her with another Full Body-Bind.

It was Leo’s own turn next. He was put against Morag, who he beat with a Melofors and an Expelliarmus, having dodged her Leg-Locker Curse. Daphne thrashed Matthew, Terry narrowly beat Padma, and then Marisa was put against Sue Li, who she defeated without too much trouble. Lisa, Anthony and Theo also went through to the quarter-finals.

The first quarter-final was Daphne against Terry. It was a close match, but Daphne just beat Terry with three Full Body-Binds in a row making them virtually impossible to dodge. 

Secondly, Marisa duelled Lisa who she beat fairly easily, only having to dodge one Disarming Charm.

The third quarter-final was between Theo and Roger. Theo won with a very speedy Expelliarmus.

Finally, Leo duelled Anthony who he defeated despite a close shave with a Full Body-Bind.

Marisa duelled Theo in the first semi-final, which went on for a very long time before Theo finally yielded to Marisa’s Tickling Charm.

Leo had a slightly easier time against Daphne, who had good reactions but little magical power meaning that it was only a matter of time before he could land a Full Body-Bind.

That left the final, which was, inevitably, Leo versus Marisa.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” announced Roger theatrically, “place your bets now.”

Most of the Ravenclaws placed small amounts on Leo, although Daphne placed a whole Galleon on Marisa.

Theo was agreed by both parties to be the referee, and said once all bets had been placed: “Begin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! Who do you think will win?


	40. The Duel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like the new chapter! I'm a bit busy IRL at the moment but should be able to update Wednesday as usual.

Leo immediately fired off a Disarming Charm, which Marisa dodged. She fired back her trademark Tickling Charm which hit Leo and left him giggling on the ground but still tightly gripping his wand.

“Do you give in?” asked Marisa, smirking.

“No,” said Leo between giggles. “Definitely not.”

Marisa sighed and kept going. Leo refused to launch a spell at Marisa.

This stalemate continued for nearly a minute before Marisa dispelled the Tickling Charm and fired a Full Body-Bind.

Unlike last time, however, Leo managed to roll underneath and regain his footing. He waited, wand in hand, for Marisa’s next move.

“Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus! Petrificus Totalus!”

Three Full Body-Binds. One fired directly at Leo, and one to either side. Impossible to dodge all three at once unless you could fly.

Leo couldn’t fly. But he did have one last trick up his sleeve. “Protego!”

The bubble-like shield appeared, wobbling, in thin air just before Marisa’s spell smashed into it. Leo stayed perfectly still as the other two curses sailed harmlessly past. The shield wobbled uncontrollably, but – just about – held. 

Leo shot Marisa a smug look, then decided that it was time to go on the offensive.

“Melofors! Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus!” he cast, quickly dispelling his shield. The first jinx hit her, but she rolled out of the way of the other two. A chorus of laughs broke out from the crowd as they saw Marisa lying on the ground, pumpkin encasing her head.

She struggled to her feet and decided to pull out one of her own trickier spells. “Locomotor pumpkin!”

The pumpkin, controlled by her Locomotion Charm, lifted up off Marisa’s head and floated towards Leo, who turned and ran.

What followed was a game of cat-and-mouse which had most of the students gasping with laughter as if they’d been hit by one of Marisa’s Tickling Charms.

Leo could run a lot faster than Marisa could make her pumpkin fly, but he was prevented by the students surrounding the duelling area from escaping altogether and so had to dodge and twist. Eventually he lost patience and flicked his wand at the pumpkin. “Depulso!” His Banishing Charm was stronger than Marisa’s Locomotion Charm and so the pumpkin flew towards her.

She ducked and covered her head, having no wish to get it covered in pumpkin again, but remained alert and prepared to dodge – until she heard a familiar drawl.

“Asriel duelling the Mudblood? Finally seen sense, have you, Leo?”

Furious, Marisa instantly twisted her wand to point at Draco and screamed: “Slugulus Erecto!” 

Draco doubled over, clutching his chest, and threw up three large slugs.

“I told you before,” said Marisa coldly, “don’t call me a Mudblood.”

Then Leo’s Full Body-Bind hit her in the chest.


	41. Extreme Awkwardness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Draco has absolutely no chance against Marisa... he just hasn't realised how much of a mistake it is to make an enemy of her yet.

Leo stood, wand still pointing at Marisa as she lay flat on the ground. He glanced from Marisa to Draco, who had just vomited another five slugs, and hesitated. This was one of the most awkward moments so far in his effort to not take sides between Marisa and Draco.

He hesitated before moving over to Draco. “You all right?”

Draco shook his head and another particularly large slug fell out of his mouth. “Let me… jinx her…” he said.

“You can if you like,” said Leo, “but bear in mind she’ll take revenge if you do.”

“That would be – “ A slug interrupted Draco’s words – “revenge.”

“Not in her book – the slug attack was revenge for you calling her a Mudblood, so you’re even and she’s free to retaliate against anything else you do.”

Someone had countered Leo’s Full Body-Bind while he had been busy with Draco, and Marisa was back on her feet.

“Exactly!” she said, looking smugly at Draco. “I’ll duel you, if you want. Bet I can beat you.”

Draco, reluctant though he was, knew when he was beaten. He lurched away, stopping every few steps to throw up more slugs, and turned back to fire off one last remark: “Your days at Hogwarts are numbered!”

“So are everyone’s,” said Marisa, not looking at all bothered by this unsubtle threat.

Leo, smiling a little despite himself, turned back to the group. “What have we learnt from that?” he asked.

“Don’t get on the wrong side of Marisa?” suggested a Ravenclaw first-year.

“Well, that is a valid point,” said Leo, “but it wasn’t the one I had in mind.”

Terry raised his hand. “Don’t get distracted?”

“Exactly,” Leo said. “The reason I was able to hit Marisa was that she was focused on Draco, not on me.”

“I could have beaten you easily,” Marisa added, grinning. “I just chose to target Draco instead.”

“Yes, but you were meant to be duelling me, not Draco!”


	42. Disarming Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm really sorry the update is a day late - I was away IRL and forgot to say something in the last notes. And I honestly didn't intend for the meeting to be this long!
> 
> Next chapter: Quidditch tryouts!

“I think we should get back on topic,” said Leo. “Does anyone have the time?”

Marisa glanced at her watch: eleven o’clock. 

Leo hesitated for a moment. There was still quite a while left before lunchtime. “Okay,” he said, “let’s start by working on the Disarming Charm. If you’ve never learnt it before, line up here, if you’ve learnt it but haven’t practiced much stand over here, and if you’ve mastered it stand over here.”

 

The students divided up into three groups. The first-years were pretty evenly split between the first and second lines. Leo was joined in his line by all of the Slytherin second-years and two or three Ravenclaws.

“Okay,” he said. “Um… Terry, could you supervise the first-years? I’ll swap with you in a few minutes.”

Terry nodded and walked off to instruct the first-years and some of the second-years who were learning and practicing the Disarming Charm.

Leo glanced around the remaining group: Marisa, Tracey, Theo, Daphne and Roger.

“Okay,” he said, “let’s play a game. Basically, we all have to try and Disarm each other, last one standing wins, no using any other spells.”

Everyone nodded.

“Ready? Go!”

“Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus! Expelliarmus!”

For the first chaotic minute, Leo didn’t actually aim any spells at anyone and instead focussed on dodging the jets of red light from all around. He noticed quite a few coming from a certain direction and guessed that Marisa was targeting him as she believed him the biggest threat. Which, of course, he was.

When the minute was up Tracey and Daphne were out and Marisa held two wands – he was pretty sure the second was Tracey’s. 

The remaining four stared at each other for a long moment and it was Marisa who made the first move. “Expelliarmus!” she said, one wand pointed at Leo and the other at Theo. 

Leo had to admire her creativity and the strength of her magic in being able to wield two wands at once. He was relieved that it was Tracey’s wand that was pointing at him, not Marisa’s own, so the spell was weaker and easier to dodge. 

Theo was not so lucky: his wand was ripped from his hand and Marisa caught it. She smirked.

“Expelliarmus,” said Leo, knowing he had to take her down before she could focus solely on him. 

Marisa dodged and, pointing all three wands at Roger, said: “Expelliarmus!”

Roger’s wand was torn away from his grip and he was pushed backwards by the sheer force of the triple spell. 

Marisa, grinning from ear to ear, caught Roger’s wand. 

Leo felt a strong sense of impending doom. “This is a health and safety risk!” he protested, pointing at Roger, who had collapsed to the ground under the sheer force of the spells. “We should make a rule saying – “

“You can’t make rules in the middle of the game!” protested Marisa.

“I propose a vote,” Leo suggested. “All in favour of a rule saying you should only be allowed to use one wand?”

Leo raised his hand. No-one else did.

“Um… can we have some reassurance that Marisa isn’t going to make us vomit slugs if we vote for this?” 

“I won’t do that,” she said, “but I’m not promising not to do anything…”

Roger cautiously raised his hand. 

“All in favour of Leo getting his ass kicked?” asked Marisa with a grin.

Daphne, Theo and Marisa raised their hands.

“That’s a clear majority, then…” she said smugly and pointed all four wands at Leo. 

He knew that he wouldn’t have any chance unless he acted before Marisa had the chance to, so he flicked his wand subtly at Marisa and whispered “Expelliarmus.” Not waiting to see if the spell hit or not, he whirled around and began moving as quickly as he could in random directions. If he made himself a moving target, he might stand a chance.

As soon as he could, he glanced at Marisa to see what had happened: unfortunately, she was still clutching all four of the wands. 

“Expelliarmus!” she said, and he was too slow to dodge: he was hit by all four spells. 

He was forced backwards by the sheer power of the combined spells, his wand torn from his grasp by a powerful tug which he could do nothing at all to prevent. Then he hit something hard and heard a cry of “Ouch!”

He had been pushed back a good five metres and slammed directly into Theo’s knees. The two Slytherins collapsed in a tangled heap.

“Do I win?” asked Marisa, walking towards them, now carrying five wands.

“Yes,” said Leo grudgingly. “You win.”


	43. Quidditch tryouts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Saturday. Not too bad. I won't have the next chapter done by tomorrow so next update will be Wednesday and then return to a normal schedule.

The following Saturday was the Slytherin Quidditch try-outs. Leo was in the stands right from the beginning. The official reason was to support Draco, but he actually wanted a certain someone else to become Slytherin seeker. Because she was better than he was so Slytherin would be more likely to win. That was definitely the only reason.

There were two vacancies on the team this year: Seeker and Chaser. They held the Chaser try-outs first. Leo watched them idly: all the students trying out were above his year and he didn’t know any of them so he didn’t really care who got in.

Then, finally, it was the turn of the Seekers. Draco and Marisa were the only two there (Leo had a sneaking suspicion that Lucius had bribed other prospective Seekers to stay away).

The captain, Marcus Flint, announced that he would release a Snitch and Draco and Marisa had to catch it. 

They both mounted their Nimbus brooms: Draco his brand-new Two Thousand and One and Marisa the Two Thousand Leo had bought her last year.

Flint released the Snitch, counted to ten, and then blew a whistle. 

Draco and Marisa both kicked off from the ground and flew up as high as they could to start searching for the Snitch. It was a full minute until anything happened.

Marisa was the one who spotted the Snitch first, but Leo could see her hesitation: Draco was closer and if she dived, he would beat her to it. So she flew slowly towards him and the Snitch, letting her gaze drift around and deliberately not fixing on anything.

Draco, meanwhile, had begun to circle around the pitch, clearly having no idea where the Snitch was. Leo smiled slightly as Marisa drifted down towards the Snitch. 

Just as she was finally in range to make a dive for the Snitch, Draco spotted it and immediately dived. Marisa dived too, but she had lost that critical extra distance and Draco’s broom was faster than hers. 

Marisa stretched out her hand, straining every muscle to try and reach the Snitch before Draco did. Beside her, overtaking quickly, Draco did the same. 

Their hands collided in mid-air, only millimetres away from the Snitch, and it was Marisa who recovered first. She grabbed the Snitch despite her fumbling fingers and flashed a triumphant smile into the stands before descending.

“Thank you,” said Flint. “The final team will be posted on the notice board tomorrow.”


	44. The Results

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated on time! :D Hope you like the new chapter. By the way, this story is now cross-posted on ff.net under the same username.
> 
> (EDIT: just realised I messed up the timeline a bit, will be editing chapters from about beginning of second year.)
> 
> (SECOND EDIT: new chapter, "Gilderoy Lockhart", is a way back to get this story in chronological order.)

When Leo came downstairs the next morning, he found Marisa standing in front of the noticeboard, looking absolutely furious.

“What?” he asked.

Marisa was too angry to speak coherently. Instead she pointed to the piece of paper with the Quidditch team published on it. In neatly handwritten block capitals, it read: SEEKER: DRACO MALFOY. RESERVE: MARISA KING.

“Oh,” said Leo. 

“Well?” she spat. “Aren’t you going to do something?”

Leo hesitated. In truth there wasn’t really that much he could do. “I’ll speak to Flint,” he said, “but that’s all I can do.”

Marisa nodded. “Fine! And make sure you tell him that I think he’s an idiotic blood purist who doesn’t deserve to be captain of a paper bag!”

“If you want to get on his team, that’s probably not the best thing to tell him.”

“Fair point,” conceded Marisa.

“Come on. Let’s get breakfast. He’ll probably be down there.”

Marisa nodded and they walked downstairs together. Flint was easy to find: he was one of the few up that early. Fortunately, Draco was not, which made things much less complicated.

“Okay,” said Leo quietly, “no threats, no insults, no jinxing. Got it?”

“Yes,” said Marisa, perhaps a touch reluctantly. Then she walked up to Flint. Leo sat down nearby to watch.

“Hello,” said Marisa. “I wanted a word with you about the Quidditch team?”

“Ah,” said Flint, “yes. You’re the better player, King, but I didn’t have a choice. Half the team would resign if we made you Seeker, not to mention we’d lose those Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones.”

“If you just gave me one chance… I’m sure if the whole House saw me win them a match I could – “ 

“No,” he said. “I’m sorry. If Draco turns out to be not as good as I think he is, I’ll try you, but I can’t promise anything else. You should be grateful you got what you did.”

Marisa hesitated. Then, slowly, reluctantly, she nodded. “When does training start?”

“It’s every Friday evening,” Flint replied, “beginning this week. Thank you.”

She nodded and sat down opposite Leo, reaching for a slice of toast.


	45. Quidditch Practice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry - I finished the chapter Wednesday but completely forgot to actually post it! Next update will be Sunday as usual.

The next Saturday was the first day of Quidditch training for Draco and Marisa, who had not received a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, unlike the rest of the Slytherin team. She wasn’t surprised, and was only a little annoyed. It was relatively low on the long list of reasons Marisa had to hate Draco.

When they reached the Quidditch pitch they found the Gryffindor team already there and flying around. As soon as they spotted the new arrivals, they flew down to confront them. 

Draco hid behind the six larger boys and dragged Marisa in behind him. 

“What?” she hissed. “Ashamed of being on the same team as me?”

He shook his head violently. “Not here,” he whispered. “Not in front of Gryffindors!”

She smiled slightly, seeing the opportunity.

“Flint!” bellowed the Gryffindor captain. “This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!”

“Plenty of room for all of us,” said Flint, sounding unconcerned.

“But I booked the field!” said Wood, furious. “I booked it!”

“Ah,” replied Flint, “but I have a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. I, Professor S. Snape,” he read, “give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker…and reserve.”  
Marisa was pleasantly surprised that those last two words had actually been added.

“You’ve got a new Seeker?” asked Wood. “Where?”

Draco stepped out from behind the larger boys, smirking. Marisa followed and stood beside him.

“Aren’t you Lucius Malfoy’s son?” said one of the Weasley twins, dislike visible in his gaze.

“Funny you should mention Draco’s father,” Flint said, and Marisa saw the smiles spreading over the faces of the rest of the team. “Let me show you the generous gift he’s made to the Slytherin team.”

They held out their new Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones.

“Very latest model,” said Flint. “Only came out last month. I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps, sweeps the board with them.”

He paused, but none of the Gryffindors said anything. “Oh, look,” he remarked, “a field invasion.”

Marisa followed his gaze to see Granger and Weasley crossing the grass.

“What’s happening?” asked Weasley. “Why aren’t you playing? And what’s he doing here?” 

“I’m the new Slytherin Seeker, Weasley,” said Malfoy smugly. “Everyone’s just been admiring the brooms my father’s bought our team. Good, aren’t they? But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them.”

Marisa really didn’t see what was so funny, but the other Slytherins burst out laughing.

“At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in,” said Hermione sharply. “They got in on pure talent.”

Marisa nodded at Granger and was about to say how much she agreed with Granger when Malfoy spat “No-one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!”

Instant uproar. Everyone in the Gryffindor team yelled and some of them almost jumped at Malfoy.

“I wish the Slytherins made this big a fuss when I was called that,” remarked Marisa dryly.

Weasley grabbed his wand and screamed, “You’ll pay for that one, Malfoy! Slugulus Erecto!”

Marisa snorted.

A loud bang echoed around the stadium and a jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of his wand, hitting him in the stomach and sending him reeling backwards onto the grass.

Marisa watched calmly as the Gryffindors attempted to assess him and he belched a few slugs. She saw Malfoy on all fours, he was laughing so hard.

“Think that’s funny, do you?” she asked acidly. “I don’t think you did last time?”

She continued to observe as Potter and Granger carried Weasley away, and once they were out of sight the Slytherins picked themselves up from where they had fallen about laughing and Flint said “I think as we have a full team and you don’t, we are going to train now.”

Marisa nodded and mounted her Nimbus Two Thousand.


	46. The Writing on the Wall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At last, some actual plot!

Before Leo and Marisa knew it, it was Halloween. The first two months had gone by in a flash. The Snow Leopards were learning fast: most of the second-years were getting the hang of Shield Charms and were currently working on Mobilarbus while the first years were working on the Full Body-Bind.

Quidditch training sessions were going acceptably for Marisa. She was working on winning over the other players in the hopes of eventually becoming permanent Seeker. So far it hadn’t been working too well.

The Halloween feast had just ended and students were spilling out to head back towards their dormitories. Marisa had had a lot of practice at moving in crowds, so she drew ahead of Leo and as he tried to follow, he found Vincent had squeezed between them.

Sighing, he began to drop back, not having any particular inclination to hurry – until the crowd suddenly stopped outside a girls’ bathroom. Silence fell dramatically. Leo wormed his way forwards and he could see: there was writing on the wall.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

Hanging beneath the message was – a cat. Mrs. Norris, belonging to Filch. Dangling by her tail from the torch bracket, stiff and lifeless.

Leo knew what the Chamber was: it was created by Salazar Slytherin and held a monster, supposedly there to purge the school of those unworthy to study magic. 

He shivered. He had just realised what Draco meant. This was what he had referred to in the summer. This was what was going to kill Muggle-borns. 

Draco knew something about it. Maybe he was even behind it.

And if someone couldn’t find out what this was and put a stop to it, Marisa could be in danger.


	47. Discussing the Chamber

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy the chapter! I'm going to be busy IRL over the weekend so as I have other stuff to work on I'll skip Sunday's update and next update will be a week today.

“Well?” asked Marisa impatiently.

It was about one o’clock. As it was the weekend, there was no need to worry about getting up early the next morning, so they were free to stay up late in order to avoid Draco.

“Well what?” replied Leo, even though he knew perfectly well what she meant.

“Well, can you please explain what that was?”

“What what was?”

“You know exactly what,” said Marisa, her patience running out. “What is the Chamber of Secrets, who is the heir, and what does this has to do with Draco.”

“Well,” said Leo, “the only one I can fully answer is the first. The Chamber of Secrets was created by Salazar Slytherin after a dispute between him and Godric Gryffindor. Rumour states that it holds a monster destined to,” he made quotation marks with his fingers, “purge the school of those who are unworthy to study magic”.

“And… that means Muggle-borns, right?”

“That’s how most people have interpreted it, but it’s not necessarily what Slytherin meant. But Slytherin’s dead, so it’s the intentions of the heir that matter.”

“The heir… of Slytherin?”

Leo nodded. 

“Who is this heir?” she asked.

“Well, if I knew that, this wouldn’t be happening now. Would it?”

“Got any theories?”

“No, I’m not sure.”

“Shall we investigate together?”

Leo hesitated. “We can ask around, but I don’t think we should do anything stupid.”

“When did I mention that?” asked Marisa. “You know that I am not stupid, and wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

“I’m just saying,” Leo pointed out, “sneaking out to fly is one thing, tackling the thousand-year-old monster of Salazar Slytherin is quite another.”

“I had no plans to tackle it,” replied Marisa, “I just wanted to find out what it was. Anyway, I’d better get some sleep. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Leo replied and stood up.


	48. Quidditch Match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Hope you enjoy the new chapter.

A couple of weeks later was the first Quidditch match of the year, between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Marisa’s efforts to persuade the team had not borne fruit just yet, and it was still Draco who was playing Seeker against Harry Potter. Marisa fully expected Slytherin to lose: Draco was good, but he wasn’t as good as Potter.

As Draco was otherwise occupied, she was sitting next to Leo, watching as the teams mounted their brooms and the whistle blew.

Immediately a Bludger flew towards Potter, who dodged neatly. To Marisa’s surprise, it spun in mid-air and flew back towards him again. 

At first she thought that it was just a coincidence, but five minutes later it was still headed at Potter. The Gryffindor Seeker had yet to be hit, but Marisa knew it couldn’t be long before he was.

“Do you think it’s been tampered with?” asked Leo.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious!” replied Marisa. “Of course it has!”

Leo glared at Marisa, who had leaned forward to watch the game. 

“Hang on,” she said quietly, “is that – by Draco’s ear – “

It was, and she could see that Potter had spotted it too and was trying to work out how to get closer without alerting Draco.

“What?”

“The Snitch,” she said, “idiot.”

“Should we shout for Draco?”

“Honestly, Leo, what has happened to your brain today? We most certainly should not. Because,” she went on impatiently, “if Draco misses this, Flint will be absolutely furious with him. Possibly even so furious that he’ll kick him off the team…”

“And?” asked Leo, looking blankly at her.

“And a certain someone might be chosen to replace him.”

“Who?”

“Okay,” said Marisa, “you are definitely faking this. There is absolutely no way you’d be that clueless in reality.”

Leo threw up his hands. “You got me. Did you really think I was serious?”

“No!” said Marisa, even though she had for a moment or two. She continued watching: the Bludger had just slammed into Potter’s arm, and looked to have done some pretty painful damage, but he flew directly at Draco to catch the Snitch anyway. 

However, having now lost his grip on the broom, Potter fell and hit the ground hard. As people rushed towards him, Marisa remarked dryly: “What is it about Potter, Quidditch and being sabotaged?”


	49. Sunday Morning Thoughts

The next morning, a Sunday, Leo and Marisa were in the common room playing Exploding Snap with Theo, Daphne and Tracey and discussing the latest disturbing rumours.

“Did you hear who was attacked?” asked Marisa.

“Gryffindor first-year. Colin Creevey. Mean anything to you?” Theo tapped the pile of cards in front of him with his wand and watched as they lit up a silvery-grey colour.

She thought for a moment. “Wasn’t he the one who was always taking pictures of Potter?” 

Leo slammed his wand down on her pile: she had been distracted and hadn't noticed the red six she had, the same as the face-up card.

Theo nodded. “There’s a rumour going around that Potter’s the Heir of Slytherin, because of that.” 

“But he’s in Gryffindor!” said Tracey. “He can’t possibly be Slytherin’s heir…”

“It makes no sense!” agreed Daphne.

"How many cards do I owe you?" asked Marisa, sighing.

“I don’t know…” Leo said thoughtfully, sensing the eyes of the group on him. “It’s possible… I wouldn’t think it likely but it could be that he’s pretending to be incompetent very, very well… Oh, and five.”

“Who do you think it is?” asked Marisa, counting out the top five cards from her pile and handing them over to Leo. “It’s almost certainly a Slytherin, right…?”

“Don’t see why it matters to us,” Theo said. “We’re safe. None of us Slytherins are muggle-born.”

There was a very, very awkward silence. Everyone looked at Marisa, who glared at Theo and said absolutely nothing, although her eyes were clearly saying “If you don’t apologise at once, something very unpleasant will happen to you.”

Theo's pile of cards exploded right underneath his slightly sheepish face.


	50. Overheard Information

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Later that morning, Marisa was wandering around on the second floor, whiling away the time before the Snow Leopards’ meeting which was due to start in an hour. To her surprise, she saw Harry Potter walking decisively past. She raised her eyebrows: the only place nearby was the haunted girls’ bathroom – and the place where Mrs. Norris had been attacked.

This was suspicious. There was no normal reason why Potter would be coming down here, and in a time like this it was definitely a good idea to find out what he was up to.

Discreetly, careful to stay a safe distance behind him, she followed him towards the haunted bathroom and waited outside the door, listening carefully.

She could hear voices: wasn’t it Weasley and Granger? She listened more closely.

A clunk, a splash, and a gasp, and then Granger’s voice: “Harry! You gave us such a fright – come in – how’s your arm?”

Intrigued, Marisa listened more closely. She heard the words “Polyjuice Potion” and wondered exactly what that was. Apparently, it would force a confession out of Draco – Potter suspected him of being Slytherin’s heir. 

There was even more information: Potter had been visited by someone called “Dobby” in the middle of the night. Dobby was responsible for the Bludger, and the flying car incident at the beginning of the term, but actually wanted to save Potter’s life. And the Chamber did exist, and it had been opened before.

This was better than she had dared to hope. She couldn’t wait to find out what Leo thought of all of this. It was time to go, though. She had learnt all she could, and there was no sense in staying around to be caught.


	51. Hiding Curiosity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

About fifteen minutes before the start of the meeting, Leo was standing in the grounds, waiting for the others to show up. Theo and Tracey were already there, discussing something with each other, but none of the others had shown up yet. 

He shivered slightly: it was turning very cold and his robes weren’t really warm enough for this sort of weather. He’d have to dig his winter cloak out of the trunk before too long.

As he glanced back towards the castle, he saw Marisa, wrapped up in a pale green coat, jogging gently towards him. He smiled slightly as he felt tension that he hadn’t even noticed before releasing at the sight of her.

She waved slightly, hurrying towards him until she was close enough to talk.

“Hello!” said Leo. “Looking forward to learning a new spell?”

“Yes,” she said, but he could see something was different to normal. She stepped closer until their bodies were virtually touching each other and whispered in his ear, her hot breath warming it.

“I’ve found out something important,” she breathed. “Tell you later…”

He nodded, but didn’t draw back from her. He could feel the heat radiating off her body, warming him. Leo couldn’t help being slightly annoyed: he wouldn’t be able to focus on teaching the second-years Ascendio when his mind was on wondering what Marisa had found out. 

She stepped back to a more usual distance from Leo as Daphne arrived with a couple of the Ravenclaws and then the first-years began to join the little group.

“Okay,” he said, “first-years are going to keep working on the Full Body-Binds, could you get into pairs and start practicing? Second-years, over here, we’re learning Ascendio today.”

He waited for everyone to get into groups as requested, and then began carefully demonstrating the wand movements required for the spell, all the while burning with curiosity.


	52. In the Library

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you like the chapter!

After the meeting, Marisa immediately left after just a slight glance at Leo. “Just going to the library,” she said, “thought I might catch up on some homework.”

Leo followed her, and before long they were hidden in one of the quieter sections: a set of books on Ancient Runes.

“Well?” asked Leo.

“I overheard Potter talking to Weasley and Granger…” 

She told him everything she’d found out. “So,” asked Marisa once she’d finished, “can you shed some light on what all that was about?”

“I know Dobby – he’s the Malfoys’ house elf, very weird. So, I’m guessing he doesn’t know any more than I do. Polyjuice Potion makes you look like someone else, be on your guard around Potter, Weasley and Granger – you need a bit of a person, so don’t let them get hold of your hair.”

Marisa nodded.

“The Chamber was opened before fifty years ago – I’ve done a little research and the person who was arrested for it was…” He paused, for the sake of creating drama. “Hagrid.”

“No way!” said Marisa. “He can’t possibly be – I mean, everyone knows he loves monsters, but something like that – “

“I agree,” replied Leo. “That makes it extremely likely that he was framed.”

“And that’s all the information we have.”

“Yes.”

“So, what do we do about the Polyjuice thing?”

“Nothing, as yet. I’ll see if I can catch them and confront them somewhere where Draco won’t see. If you happen to be passing that bathroom, have a listen in to find out how they’re getting on. However, I do have a few things I think we could try without too much risk…”

Marisa smiled slightly. “Such as?”

“Geanology. Pure-blood wizards are big on their ancestry, so we should be able to find out who the possible descendants of Slytherin are. And there are charts in the library here – I think we should look now. You do your Potions essay; we don’t want anyone getting suspicious.”

She nodded and retrieved parchment and quill from her bag. Five minutes later Leo returned, carrying a heavy book entitled The Wizarding Descendants of Salazar Slytherin, 1000 AD – 1200 AD.

“This may be a bit tedious. Wish me luck.” And he opened the book, while Marisa began writing out the properties of Flobberworm mucus. 

Two hours later, they were still there. Marisa was running out of essays to write, having by now done Potions, Transfiguration and Herbology, and was working on a particularly dull History of Magic essay.

Leo, meanwhile, had pored over three massive geanology books and was now on The Wizarding Descendants of Arthur Gaunt, 1200 AD – 1400 AD.

“Any luck?” asked Marisa.

“Kind of,” replied Leo. “It’s really tedious – you never know when the line you’re following is just going to stop and make ages of work be all for nothing. This one looks fairly promising, though, I think it might get somewhere.”

“Can you remember the top ten causes of the Second Goblin Rebellion?” 

“Yes, but I thought catching the heir of Slytherin would be more important than getting top grades from Professor Binns.”

Marisa shot him a glare but had to acknowledge that he had a good point. She could remember six of seven of the reasons, so she’d be able to at least make a decent start without help.

“Hello.”

It was Draco. Marisa spun round to glare at him and cover up Leo’s hastily picking up a quill and beginning to write on a spare piece of parchment.

“Hello,” she replied cautiously.

“What are you doing?”

“Writing essays,” she said, trying not to sound too guilty.

“What’s that big book, then?” asked Draco. He was pointing to The Wizarding Descendants of Arthur Gaunt.

“Oh,” said Leo, looking up. “Hey, Draco. Just something I needed to look up for History of Magic.”

That produced the desired results: Draco’s eyes glazed over and he said “Oh, right.”

“We’re working on that at the moment,” continued Leo, feeling a little mischievous. “Would you like to join us?”

“Yeah, do, Draco,” said Marisa, catching on. “It’s really fascinating – I find Professor Binns makes the subject so interesting – really makes you think about all those goblin rebellions – “

Draco looked at her as if she’d gone mad. “No, sorry – I have to go – uh – wash my hair.” He made a speedy exit. 

Leo and Marisa looked at each other for one long moment, and as soon as Draco was out of earshot, they simultaneously burst out laughing.

“Wash his hair?” Marisa choked out between giggles. “That is literally the worst excuse ever!”

“Did you see the look on his face?” Leo said, managing to compose himself a little but still grinning from ear to ear.

“Good way to get him off our backs,” said Marisa, gulping in air. “Remind me to use that trick some time.”

“Yeah,” said Leo, and they returned to their tedious work, minds much refreshed by the laughter.


	53. More Research

Leo didn’t finish his mission that day: Madam Pince had got suspicious and chased them out, but he still had careful notes to enable him to carry on later. They’d gone back to the common room and Leo had helped Marisa with her History of Magic essay and got some of his own essay-writing done.

That day between classes, they snuck to the library whenever they had a chance, which wasn’t often. Marisa did a freshly-assigned Charms essay while Leo continued working through the geanology books. 

At lunch, both of them ate as quickly as they could before returning to their mission. It took them until nearly seven o’clock in the evening before Leo finally threw down The Wizarding Descendants of Henry Gaunt, 1800 – 2000 (Thirty-fourth Edition) and said: “That’s it. Dead end.”

“What?” asked Marisa. “You mean you haven’t found it?”

“No,” he said. “I got as far as about 1920,1930, something like that, but then there’s no more descendants… or should I say,” he went on, “no more registered descendants.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” he said, “plenty of the old-fashioned blood-purist families – “

“Like yours?”

“Yes,” he said, shooting Marisa a look. “Like mine. They didn’t put it on the tree if a family member had disgraced them. So, they might not register a squib, or someone who married a Muggle.”

“So, you’re saying all this work finding registered descendants has been for nothing and there’s about fifty unregistered ones out there who we have no clue how to find?”

“Sort of. There is still one thing we can try…”

Marisa pounced on the hope that she hadn’t just done all of her homework in two days for nothing. “What is it?”

“Well, we could try looking through old Daily Prophets,” Leo suggested. “The library has a huge archive of them. They might have records of what happened to these Gaunts.”

Marisa nodded. “That could work… it sounds like hard work, though. Oh well, I’ve done all of my homework by now. What are we looking for?”

They went over to the Daily Prophets section, and Leo told her what she needed to do. “We’re looking for any mention of a Morfin, Marvolo or Merope Gaunt, from about 1900 all the way through to now. If you take the first decade, I’ll take the second…”

Marisa groaned. This was going to take forever…


	54. Dead End

In the end, it took a day and a half in between classes, staying up as late as Madam Pince would let them get away with, before Marisa finally pronounced triumphantly “I’ve got it!” and produced an edition dated 16 September, 1925.

They scrutinised the article carefully: its headline was _Gaunt Family Sentenced to Imprisonment_. The article read:

_Marvolo Gaunt, head of the formerly wealthy and influential House of Gaunt, and his son Morfin were today sentenced by the Wizengamot to six months and three years respectively in Azkaban. Marvolo was convicted of the attempted assault of his daughter Merope, attacking representitives of the Ministry of Magic, resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and contempt of Wizengamot. His son was convicted of jinxing a Muggle, resisting arrest and assaulting a Magical Law Enforcement officer. The motives for these attacks were unknown._

Marisa stared curiously at the article. “So… what does that tell us? Where do we look next?”

Leo hesitated for a moment. “Err… I don’t actually know. We haven’t got the full picture, and I don’t expect they’d let students look at old Wizengamot records without good reason.”

“This is for a good reason,” protested Marisa.

“We haven’t exactly got any hard evidence, have we?”

Marisa nodded reluctantly.

“If you copy down this article so we have a record of it, and then we should keep looking, I suppose…”

They did. It took them two days to get through the entire volume of Daily Prophets up until fifty years ago, and they found nothing more of any use.

“Now,” said Marisa, “we really have reached a dead end.”


	55. Potions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last time I update on a Sunday. I'm decreasing the update frequency so that this will now only be updated on Wednesdays. I'm sorry if you're eagerly waiting for updates, but I've been writing nothing but this for the past while and I feel like I've been rushing to get the chapters out on time rather than proof-reading and editing first, so I think changing this will give me time to work on other stuff and also hopefully improve the quality and length of each chapter. Hope you enjoy!

Leo and Marisa both signed up to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays: Leo because Lucius wanted him and Draco to keep an eye on the situation with the Chamber and Marisa because she had decided that Hogwarts was far, far more exciting than home. 

In Potions, one Thursday, a few days after Leo and Marisa’s birthdays, the Gryffindors and Slytherins were brewing the Swelling Solution. Leo’s potion was slightly too watery, even though he’d added exactly the amount the instructions called for. Marisa’s, meanwhile, was just the right consistency.

“How are you doing that?” asked Leo. “I added just as much water as you did, why is mine so watery?”

Marisa glanced around to make sure Professor Snape wasn’t watching: he was sneering at Potter’s potion and not paying them any attention. Draco and Pansy were laughing at whatever he was saying.

“I added the water a little bit at a time,” replied Marisa, “and stirred it in gradually until the consistency was right.”

“That’s not what the instructions say… though it does make sense, and it certainly seems to have worked for you. I’ll bear that in mind for future reference.”

They each returned to their work, concentrating on the fires they were lighting underneath their cauldrons to get them at precisely the right temperature.

As they were doing that, they heard a loud splashing sound and suddenly the greenish liquid in one of the cauldrons flew into the air and covered the students. Marisa got a bit on her hand, which immediately began to increase in size. Not knowing quite what to do, she stared at it as it inflated to the size of a dinner plate. 

For a few moments, the room was filled with chaos, before Professor Snape yelled “SILENCE! Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draught – when I find out who did this – “

Marisa staggered up to Professor Snape’s desk, struggling to support the weight of her massive arm, and as she did so she saw Granger slipping out of Snape’s office, robes bulging, and then she immediately understood: ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion.

She shared a brief glance at Leo, who was still standing by his cauldron, and knew that he had seen, too, and he also knew exactly what was going on.

This information would be extremely useful in the future. She smiled slowly.


	56. The Duelling Club, Part One

One week later, Leo noticed a piece of parchment on the wall. Apparently, Hogwarts was starting a Duelling Club. To tell the truth, he wasn’t particularly keen on the idea: he much preferred learning independently through the Snow Leopards, being able to push himself in the ways he wanted instead of having to ask permission and have his back watched the whole time.

But Draco loved the thought of learning to duel, and decided that he would sign up, so Leo decided to go along for the ride. Marisa, on hearing this, also decided to join the group.

At eight o’clock that evening, they gathered in the Great Hall to begin the first session. To Leo’s horror, the person walking onto the stage was his least favourite teacher, even including Professor Binns: Gilderoy Lockhart. He was accompanied by Professor Snape.

To begin with, Snape and Lockhart carried out a demonstration of duelling. Snape took precisely one second to Disarm Lockhart. Leo couldn’t resist cheering, he hated Lockhart so much. Many of the other Slytherins, including Draco, did the same.

Lockhart tried to claim that he could easily have been able to have stopped Snape, who was looking absolutely furious at this claim.

Then they both came down and started putting the students into pairs. Leo was expecting to have to go with Draco, but he was spared from this: Draco was called by Professor Snape to partner Potter.

Lockhart reached the remainder of the Slytherin group (the second-year Snow Leopards, as well as Pansy) and said “Right, there’s six of you, so three pairs,” before moving on. Leo partnered Marisa, Theo Daphne and Tracey was left with Pansy.

Once everyone was in pairs, Lockhart, who had returned to the platform, said: “Face your partners! And bow!”

Leo and Marisa bowed to each other.

“Wands at the ready! When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents – only to disarm them – we don’t want any accidents – “

Leo was more certain than ever that this was a waste of time: he had been able to Disarm effectively for ages by now, and so had Marisa.

“One…two…three…”

“Expelliarmus!” yelled Leo and Marisa at the same time. The jets of red light shooting out from their wands collided in mid-air and bounced off each other, Leo’s hitting Pansy just as she reclaimed her own wand from Tracey and Marisa’s ripping Theo’s from his hand as he stared at Daphne, who he had just beaten.

Leo was just observing Pansy looking for her wand all over again when he felt his own wand being pulled from his hand; turning quickly around, he saw Marisa standing with his wand in her hand and a smirk on her face. 

Many of the other duels had not progressed so well: Finnegan was ashen-faced and being held up by Weasley, Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley were both on the ground, and Millicent was half-suffocating Granger. 

As for Draco and Potter… the less said about that, the better. Draco was speechless with laughter on the ground, under the influence of what Leo easily recognised as Marisa’s trademark Tickling Charm and Potter’s legs were dancing around uncontrollably.

Leo and Marisa glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. They hadn’t realised until that moment quite how far their extracurricular studying had put them ahead of the crowd when it came to duelling.


End file.
